Queen Elizabeth Power Station expansion on time and on budget

Watch above: The half-billion dollar Queen Elizabeth power station’s expansion project has had its obstacles, but as Aaron Streck updates us, its expected to be on time and on budget.

SASKATOON – There is a growing demand in Saskatchewan for power services; late this summer it looks like that requirement will be supported. The $550 million expansion and upgrade to the Queen Elizabeth Power Station in Saskatoon continues to close in on its mid-September target.

“We were on a bit of a compressed schedule but delays from winter and what not, so we have more people here then we had originally anticipated but we are pushing on meeting our schedule,” said Tony Finn from SaskPower.

The site has seen a peak of about 900 workers at one time and between 2,000 to 3,000 for the whole project.

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Construction on the project started in September, 2013; currently the power station pumps out 430 megawatts; the expansion of three gas turbines bumps that number up over 600.

READ MORE: Expansion begins at Saskatoon power station

“The first gas turbine that we’ve added we did a first fire on it three weeks ago and it is actually ready for commercial use, the second new one was actually fired last weekend, we got some more testing to do on that but next week by this time it will be ready for commercial use as well,” said SaskPower Western Plant Director Randy Manz.

“After that our focus is on getting the steam blows so we clean out anything that’s left in our steam line so it doesn’t go through our steam turbine,” said Finn.

Barring any major set backs, the entire project is expected to be done in July and commercially operational Sept. 15.

“The addition is about 200 megawatts and typically they say one megawatt is good for about 1,000 homes,” said Manz.

The Queen Elizabeth Power Station was officially commissioned in 1959, and while this could be the last expansion at it, more are expected around the province. Over the next decade, SaskPower anticipates the need to supply enough additional electricity to power a city the size of Saskatoon.

SaskPower is investing one billion dollars this year and each year over the long term to renew and modernize the provinces entire electrical system.