REGINA – Ever since it was revealed in November that the Boundary Dam Three (BD3) Project failed to meet year one expectations of capturing one million tonnes of carbon dioxide, it has been a favourite talking point of the NDP.
The New York Times recently ran an article on issues the Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project faced during its first full year in operation.
This, combined with the project capturing 48,000 tonnes of CO2, down from nearly 85,000 in January, has the NDP once again demanding more transparency.
“It wasn’t operating fully by SaskPower’s own admission.”
This admission comes in the form of SaskPower’s monthly “BD3 Status Update”. The crown corporation began publishing this report in January, after the plant ran at under 50 per cent of its expectation in 2015.
In February, the plant was operational 67 per cent of the time, a major sticking point for McIntyre and her party.
According to SaskPower the CCS facility was shut-down for a week to inspect and clean equipment. Other plant operations, including an unplanned generator shut-down, also temporarily caused the project to go offline.
SaskPower says the facility has captured over 200,000 tonnes of CO2 this year, and is on pace to meet its 800,000 tonne goal. The original goal for the first year was capturing one million tonnes.
Saskatchewan Party Leader Brad Wall said this is to be expected.
“Like any power plant it’s not operating all the time. So in any given month there might be a time where it’s just not generating power, so it’s not capturing any,” he said.
The March update is expected in the first full week of April, and early number revealed by SaskPower point to the CCS facility capturing 82,000 tonnes and being close to 100 per cent operational.