ESTEVAN - During the first three months of 2025, the carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility at SaskPower's Boundary Dam Power Station was available 98.4 per cent of the time, capturing 226,359 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), according to information released by SaskPower on May 2.
While online, the facility had a daily average capture rate of 2,553 tonnes, with a peak one-day capture of 2,749 tonnes. This resulted in an emissions intensity of 376 tonnes of CO2 per gigawatt hour, below the federally-mandated threshold of 549.1 tonnes.
March 31 also marks the end of the third consecutive fiscal year that CCS achieved more than 800,000 tonnes of CO2 captured. A total of 834,232 tonnes were captured in 2024-25.
Unit 3 at Boundary Dam, which is connected to the CCS facility, was available 100 per cent of the time. Unit 3 can operate without CCS, but CCS needs Unit 3 to be online function.
The acid plant at Boundary Dam was available 65.2 per cent of the first quarter, slightly below the target of 70 per cent, but well ahead of the fourth quarter of 2024, when it was available roughly 20 per cent of the time.
A total of 1,261 tonnes were produced, above the target of 1,250 tonnes.
CCS and Unit 3 are now in a planned maintenance overhaul that began April 11 and is expected to continue until July 6. SaskPower said back in January that a shutdown of this magnitude is needed once a decade. Planned work includes a major packing change of both the absorber towers and the sulfur dioxide stripper vessel, along with inspection and maintenance of the CO2 compressor.
Since it came online ion October 2014, the CCS facility has captured 6,833,087 tonnes of CO2.
