http://www.powermag.com/saskpower-admits-to-problems-at-first-full-scale-carbon-capture-project-at-boundary-dam-plant/
[links in on-line article]
SaskPower Admits to Problems at First “Full-Scale” Carbon Capture
Project at Boundary Dam Plant
SaskPower Admits to Problems at First “Full-Scale” Carbon Capture
Project at Boundary Dam Plant
10/30/2015 | Gail Reitenbach
Once again, a first-of-a-kind technology at a coal-fired power plant
that is designed to reduce its greenhouse gas footprint has run into
design, operational, and cost problems.
This time, it’s Saskatchewan, Canada utility SaskPower’s Boundary Dam
Carbon Capture project that’s facing scrutiny. (Earlier this week, an
overdue precombustion carbon capture project, Mississippi Power’s Kemper
County integrated gasification combined cycle plant, reported yet
another cost overrun, of $110 million.)
In a Sept. 14 press release, SaskPower notified the public that a “large
piece of SaskPower equipment” would be moved across the province and
would in some places require temporary outages because of necessary
power line moves. The 90,000-kg cylinder, the size of a six-story
building, is, the company said, “one of the major components in
SaskPower’s carbon capture and storage (CCS) process. It will improve
the reliability of the storage for the amine solution being used to
capture carbon dioxide molecules.”
That news should have been a clear indication that something major was
amiss at the facility. But only this week, several media outlets within
the province ran stories quoting Energy Minister Bill Boyd, the
government official who oversees the crown corporation, about
deficiencies at the plant.
Since the facility went online a year ago, SaskPower said in the
mid-September release, the CCS process has captured more than 400,000
metric tons (mt) of carbon dioxide. That’s far less than the million mt
annually that the utility indicated previously it was on track to capture.
Although some fine-tuning is to be expected with any first-of-a-kind
technology, the problems at the Boundary Dam site appear to be more
substantial than anyone outside the company was aware of. When POWER
visited the project in May, prior to announcing that the project won the
magazine’s 2015 Plant of the Year award (it also won the 2015 Edison
Electric Institute’s Edison Award), SaskPower representatives made it
clear that there were some issues to be resolved with the contractor and
that some systems and individual components (such as valves leaking far
earlier than would be expected) were not yet operating as they should.
However, the impression was that the issues to be resolved were more
along the lines of a “punch list” rather than fundamental, operationally
crippling problems, which is clearly the case if the capture facility's
availability is only around 40%.
Global News reported that SaskPower’s president of Carbon Capture and
Storage Initiatives, Mike Monea, explained that when the plant is
operating, it’s capturing CO2 at 90%, “but because of mechanical
issues,” it’s only operating 40% of the time.
In response to questions from POWER about the capture equipment,
SaskPower spokesman Tyler Hopson responded, "The rate has fluctuated
over the course of the year and since we launched in Oct. 2014. We’ve
been testing various capacity factors to find problems and fix them, as
is routine on any large-scale industrial project. We’ve also had regular
maintenance periods to exchange equipment under warranty and apply
fixes. We have achieved capture rates that came very close to peak
capacity at times, and also tested other rates to see the impact on the
amines, equipment and need for scheduled maintenance."
This week’s comments appear to have been prompted by the province’s
opposition party’s obtaining SaskPower “background notes” that were
provided to the government that refer to significant difficulties with
SNC-Lavalin, the engineer, procure, and construct contractor for the
capture facility. Those difficulties have led to legal action. A story
in the Regina Leader-Post notes that the provincially owned utility is
in a “dispute resolution process against contractor SNC Lavalin” over
“serious design deficiencies.”
CBC news reported that SaskPower President and CEO Mike Marsh said,
"SaskPower expects to have over $50 million in claims against
SNC-Lavalin alone. The last three months have seen very poor to no
support from SNC-Lavalin." [In an email to POWER after this story was
posted, SaskPower's Hopson said the briefing note was actually written
by President of CCS Mike Monea.] Additionally, the note said,
SNC-Lavalin "has neither the will or the ability to fix some of these
fundamental flaws."
The operational problems are creating revenue problems for the project
as well. Cenovus Energy has a 10-year agreement with SaskPower to
purchase compressed CO2 from the project for use in enhanced oil
recovery nearby, but because the utility has not been able to supply
sufficient CO2, it owed Cenovus C$12 million in penalties last year and
may owe another C$5 million this year. The provincial energy minister,
Boyd, has said those penalties will be offset by C$11 million in
payments from Cenovus. Hopson said today that for this year, "revenue
will outpace any penalties we will pay for CO2 shortfalls."
While the power plant continues to operate, the capture facility is
currently offline for repairs. Hopson told POWER, "Some pieces of
equipment needed to be switched out under warranty, others needed
testing and calibration. In the next week, we’ll be done our scheduled
maintenance and anticipate we’ll increase the CO2 capacity of the process."
SaskPower has said the project is on track to be fully operational by
the end of 2016.
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