Babcock & Wilcox Canada Ltd. has earned a contract from Saskatchewan’s primary electric utility, SaskPower, to engineer, manufacture, and construct critical components to retrofit the Unit 3 boiler at the Boundary Dam Power Station in Estevan, Sask. The contact has a value of $107 million, according to B&W. The work is expected to be complete in August 2013.
The Boundary Dam Power Station is an 813-MW coal-fired station in operation since 1959.
The boiler retrofit is one aspect of the Boundary Dam Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage Demonstration Project, a proposed $1.4-billion project to retrofit Unit 3 with a carbon-capture and enhanced oil recovery systems. When completed the project is expected to result in a reduction of CO2 emissions of 1 million metric tons/year.
A final decision on the carbon capture system component has been deferred until new federal emission control regulations are completed, but B&W Canada will engineer and supply all heat-transfer surfaces and a new combustion system with low-NOx technology that it states will give SaskPower’s Boundary Dam a 30-year life extension and improved plant performance.
“We are pleased to play a key role in a project that will not only extend the life of a very critical plant for power generation in Saskatchewan, but also provide a platform for a significant reduction in carbon emissions,” state Mike Lees, president of B&W Canada. “We appreciate SaskPower’s decision to choose B&W Canada for this important project.”
