The carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility at the Boundary Dam Power Station had to be taken offline in late November, but was expected to be back online this week.
The facility captured 55,100 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) for a total of 1,806,585 tonnes captured since the CCS facility’s operations began in October 2014. It was on track to have another strong month in November, following its best month ever in October, but a mechanical issue occurred at Unit 3 on Nov. 22.
The plant was taken down for repairs, which resulted in the CCS facility also coming off-line. To maximize this down time, planned maintenance that was scheduled to begin on Dec. 1 was moved forward and instead began on Nov. 23. The carbon capture facility has been standing by, waiting for operations at Unit 3 to resume.
The planned maintenance for the CCS plant was required to inspect the upgrades installed during the previous outage during the spring and summer, and to remove ash from some of the components in the flue gas system.
The CCS facility was online for 72 per cent of the month, which did exceed the 12-month average of 63 per cent. However, the facility was offline for three months for the upgrades.
It produced an average of about 110 megawatts of power, which exceeded the 12-month average of 107 megawatts.
The 55,100 tonnes of CO2 captured meant that it operated at 57 per cent capacity, compared to the 12-month average of 44.4 per cent. The volume of CO2 captured peaked at 2,648 tonnes, which surpassed the 12-month average of 1,674 tonnes.
