REGINA — The Government of Saskatchewan says it will extend the lives of SaskPower's coal-fired generating stations.
Jeremy Harrison, the minister responsible for SaskPower and the Crown Investments Corporation, wrote to employees on June 18 to inform them the government has made the decision that SaskPower’s coal-fired, power-generating assets will be life-extended as the Crown corporation transitions to nuclear baseload power generation.
"The hard-working teams in SaskPower’s coal facilities have been subject to considerable uncertainty and they deserve a clear answer on the future of coal power generation in Saskatchewan," Harrison said in a statement sent to Â鶹´«Ã½AV.
He went on to say SaskPower is projecting that power demand will "massively" increase over the next two decades.
"To meet this growing demand, our government has decided upon an all-of-the above approach. To that end, we have added hundreds of megawatts of new renewable power generation, new natural gas plants and biomass. This is in addition to our already-existing hydro and other assets.
"We have also made the strategic decision that our priorities for SaskPower going forward will be reliable and affordable power generation along with energy security. This led to a fundamental reconsideration of the future role of coal in our system.
"Saskatchewan people own our coal resource, which we are blessed with in enormous quantities. We know that we will have access to it. The certainty and security of coal means that it will continue as a pillar of our electrical generation system as we bridge to a nuclear future powered by Saskatchewan uranium."
SaskPower currently has three coal-fired generating stations: Boundary Dam and Shand near Estevan, and Poplar River near Coronach. Unit 3 at Boundary Dam was retrofitted more than a decade ago and is the world's first fully-integrated and full-chain post-combustion carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility on a coal-fired power plant.
Boundary Dam Unit 4 was shifted to stand-by status at the end of 2021 but has been used when necessary since then. Unit 5 moved to standby late last year and Unit 6 remains online. The one unit at the Shand Power Station and two units at Poplar River are also online.
Thanks to generations of professionalism, care and expertise of SaskPower employees, Harrison said coal plants are in "remarkably viable condition" given their age. Over the past eight years, he claimed the availability of coal units has averaged between 78 and 87 per cent. By way of comparison, on average, he said renewable generation assets typically produce energy to their full potential between 19 to 31 per cent of the time.
"Renewables play an important role in our grid, and they will continue to, but they are no substitute for baseload generation," Harrison said.
"The Government of Saskatchewan remains committed to the goal of a net-zero electricity grid by 2050. But this must be done responsibly and be based on the deployment of nuclear generating assets fuelled by uranium mined in our province. We have been working diligently on the options that exist in this space, including partnering with the Governments of Ontario, Alberta and New Brunswick on small modular reactor (SMR) development."
The Crown corporation has also committed to examining the viability of large nuclear generation potential, and Harrison said it invites the federal government to be its partner as it moves forward.
Â鶹´«Ã½AV will have more on this story.
