Boundary Dam Project Nears Completion

REGINA -- A five-year multimillion-dollar project to equip all six boiler units at the SaskPower Boundary Dam Power Station with advanced emissions control units has passed another milestone, with another two electrostatic precipitators now in service.

"When all the new or upgraded electrostatic precipitators are in place, they will remove more than 99 per cent of particulate emissions from the stacks at Boundary Dam Power Station," said John Wright, President and CEO of SaskPower. "The work to date has already had a significant and positive effect on local air quality and the environment and is doing so without reducing the reliability or affordability of electrical power produced at Boundary Dam."

Work on the electrostatic precipitators for Units 1 and 2 was completed on January 28, 2003. Work on Units 3, 4 and 5 was completed in 2001. SaskPower and Saskatchewan Environment announced the electrostatic precipitator project for the first five boiler units in May 1998.

As a result of the excellent performance of the initial installation, which was done on Unit 4 and resulted in 99.8 perc ent of particulates being removed, the project was expanded in the summer of 2002, when SaskPower announced a $9 million upgrade of the existing electrostatic precipitators on Unit 6, as part of an $80 million rebuild of this unit. Work on Unit 6 is scheduled for completion in July 2003.

The addition of the electrostatic precipitators on all six boiler units will reduce emissions at the Boundary Dam facility to be in full compliance with the latest federal and provincial emissions regulations for existing power stations.