There is going to be a slight delay in the official opening target date for the Boundary Dam clean coal project, although just how long it will be is not known exactly.
Robert Watson, president and CEO of SaskPower, informed the Mercury last week that the official launching of the BD3 project originally slated for early April will be set back.
"It's just a matter of getting the pipes put in place that will carry the steam between the power plant and the carbon dioxide capture island," Watson said.
"The delay shouldn't be extensive, and there are no engineering or logistical issues here. It's just the need to take a bit more time to do the pipe work, and they want to be cautious. Since part of it involved the rebuild, it makes sense. This is not something we could hurry up by adding more labour to the project," Watson said. The people already on-site are capable of doing the work and want to do it carefully, he explained.
Since the province still does not require the additional megawatts of power from No. 3 unit at Boundary, the decision to grant permission to extend the time line came easily.
The situation will mean a delay in collecting and providing CO2 for Cenovus Energy Inc. for enhanced oil recovery in nearby oilfields, but that too, is not seen as being problematic at this point, either.
Rhona DelFrari, spokeswoman with Cenovus, told the Daily Oil Bulletin's Carter Haydu that despite the slight delay in access to the BD CO2, their pipeline built to accept the gas is already completed with an original April 1 start date in mind, but the delay will not impact their oil drilling or production operations.
"Really, this is our secondary source of CO2," she said. Cenovus still has enough CO2 coming from a North Dakota gasification plant as their primary source, which they can continue to use, and which they have been using for the past 13 years. The BD3 contribution will be a supplementary supply base, she said.
Watson confirmed that SaskPower had not received any indication from Cenovus that the delay would create any problems, and if there had been, there would have been a rapid response and communication line opened up between them.
In the meantime, the commissioning work on the already completed carbon dioxide capture island is ongoing as is a good portion of the rebuilt Unit No. 3 at Boundary, which will be capable of pumping out 110 megawatts of commercial electrical power into the provincial grid once it is fully operational.
"Pipe work can be tedious, so these guys just want to go about it systematically and with a calm approach, and since we're already through the tough part of winter and it won't impact the expense side of the project very much, that's what we're going to do," Watson said.
