SaskPower Completes First Phase of Life Extension Program for 255 MW Hydroelectric Station

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February 17, 2004 Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). SaskPower (Regina, Saskatchewan), a Crown Corporation, with the assistance of contractor VA Tech Hydro USA Corporation, a division of VA Tech Hydro GmbH & Company (Vienna, Austria), and equipment vendor Hitachi Canadian Industries Limited (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan), a division of Hitachi Canada Limited, a subsidiary of Hitachi Limited (NYSE: HIT) (Tokyo Japan) completed the first of three 85 megawatt (MW) unit life extension projects in eleven months at the Nipawin Hydroelectric Station. The Nipawin Station (Plant 2003138) is located on the Saskatchewan River, southwest of Nipawin in District 14 of Saskatchewan.

The life extensions will increase the interval time between major maintenance outages from 15 years up to possibly 30 years and normal maintenance outages from one to three years. Hydroelectric power is one of the cheapest and environmentally friendly sources of electric generation, so this will help to continue to provide "green" lower cost electricity to consumers.

The other two units are scheduled to undergo life extension modification in about eight months, each from April to December in 2005 (PEC 55000289) and 2006. The total cost of the station life extension project is estimated at $17.8 million. The units are vertical shaft variable pitch Kaplan turbines that provide 85 MW each. The first unit was commissioned in 1985 and the second and third unit where commissioned in 1986. The on-site work was performed primarily by Saskatchewan works, while the turbine runner was rebuilt at the Hitachi Saskatoon facility.

SaskPower is a government owned utility that supplies over 3,200 MW in electricity with about 900 MW of that being environmentally friendly (wind & Hydro) and the balance being thermal/fossil fuel stations.

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