The Atikokan Generating Station will be burning biomass by the end of 2014.
The conversion project at Atikokan will create 200 construction jobs and is expected to create 200 more in supplying wood pellets to the plant.
It's a new green life for the one-unit, 207-megawatt northwestern Ontario plant that was originally slated for closure in 2003 when the McGuinty government decided to close all of the province's coal-fired plants.
“It's an exciting time for the town and Ontario Power Generation (OPG),” said Chris Fralick, OPG's manager of its plants in Atikokan and Thunder Bay.
“This represents an off-coal, end of an era for Atikokan and the start of a new one. Atikokan is already on the map as having one of the largest biomass plants in North America.”
The cost of the conversion will be $170 million.
Aecon Group's industrial design division was awarded the contract to design and build the pellet fuel handling and storage systems. The value of Aecon's contract is half of the pricetag for the conversion.
“At OPG, we are committed to delivering this project on time and on budget,” said Fralick.
In July 19, the province announced that a long-awaited 10-year power purchase agreement between the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) and Ontario Power Generation (OPG) had finally been reached.
It took two years from when then-provincial energy Brad Duguid first announced that the plant would be converted.
“Being the first of its kind made it a unique situation to negotiate,” said Fralick.
At 25 years old, Atikokan is the youngest of the province's stable of four coal plants to be take off coal.
The station is burning down its coal inventory and be taken off-line this fall so the surgery can begin early next year.
Excavation started this summer on the new material handling and receiving facility.
Since biomass needs covered storage, Aecon is building two 200-foot high silos with a capacity of 5,000 tonnes each on the west side of the power house.
The interior of the plant will not physicially change much, said Fralick.
“We'll be cutting a hole in the side of the power house to feed in the biomass, cutting into the coal bunkers to (create) day bins to serve as an intermediate hopper between the silos and the pulverizers.
“From there, it blows into the boiler the same way coal is transported.”
At commissioning, Atikokan will be only operating at 10 per cent capacity and will be relied upon during peak power consumption periods on the Ontario grid.
“That's a reflection of the demand currently expected in the northwest,” said Fralick. “If the mining industry picks up the way things are forecasted to do, then we might need to produce more. But short-term, that's what OPA indicated they need from a supply perceptive.”
Since 2005, Fralick said power demand in the region decreased every year due to mill closures in the forestry industry.
Though demand has slowly increased, there remains an excess of 500 megawatts on the grid in northwestern Ontario.
The generating station's full-time workforce of 90 will be diminished, said Fralick, who couldn't get into specifics because of contract language.
When Atikokan is fired up in 2014, the station will require about 90,000 tonnes annually of wood pellets.
Fralick said OPG is close to announcing who will be the fuel suppliers.
“We're finalizing those contract negotiations and we've been talking to a number of proponents.”
Although a new startup company, Atikokan Renewables, has plans in place to start wood pellet production to feed OPG and some European customers, Fralick won't comment until an announcement is made likely in late August or September.
Among OPG's selection criteria is pellet price, company viability, ability to deliver and have 30 per cent First Nation involvement.
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