SaskPower's new 360 megawatt natural gas-powered Great Plains Power Station, located adjacent to the untenanted Agri-Food Industrial Park, is now nearly 90 per cent complete, with major electrical components powered up in late May and steam start-up activities expected to begin in late 2023.
When the power station begins operations in 2024, it will provide power equivalent to the annual usage of approximately 360,000 Saskatchewan homes. It will be a big part of the local economy, providing long-term jobs for Moose Javians, as well as attracting specialized workers to the city to live and raise their families here.
The project broke ground in 2021; went vertical and took delivery of its natural gas turbine and steam turbines in 2022; and, most recently, energized its new transmission line in a major milestone known as 'backfeed.'
Now that the station's switchyard, power line, and transformers are connected to the grid, backfeed component testing is proceeding and will be completed by the end of the year. The switchyard is like a giant circuit breaker and flow controller, providing responsive stable power to the provincial grid and acting as a mediator for peaks, troughs, and surges.
So far, the nearly $800 million project has spent over $220 million locally. It employs over 600 people currently, with over 70 per cent of workers hailing from Saskatchewan, and 14 per cent directly from Moose Jaw.
More than $44 million of the project's budget has gone to Indigenous companies and workers.
Next up on the list before the plant begins normal operations is testing of its compressed air system and water treatment plant. Then, there will be steam blowing, a process of heating, blowing steam, and cooling cycles that removes welding slag, rust, and other impurities from the plant's hundreds of kilometres of piping.
Neighbours of the Great Plains Power Station will be informed when steam blowing starts, because it can be very loud.
The plant is a combined-cycle power station that is the twin of Swift Current's Chinook power station, which began operations in 2019. Combined cycle means the excess heat from the natural gas turbine will be directed to a secondary steam turbine, increasing the station's efficiency.
Although SaskPower has made a commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 or earlier, offset natural gas plants will continue to be important long into the future to supplement wind and solar, which are dependent on weather conditions.
