District Heating Project in Saskatoon?

Could SaskPower, Saskatoon Light & Power and the City of Saskatoon work together to build the first large-scale thermal district heating project in the province of Saskatchewan?



The Queen Elizabeth II Generation Facility (QEII) is owned by SaskPower, the provincial utility in Saskatchewan. An overview of the QEII follows below:

• Originally named the South Saskatchewan River Generating Station; renamed and officially commissioned in 1959 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
• Natural gas-fired station located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
• Three original units with a combined generating capacity of 218-net MW
• Of the original three units, two units had a combined generating capacity of 123-net MW
• The third original unit had a generating capacity of 95-net MW and was commissioned in 1971
• Six 25-MW combustion gas turbines, along with systems to produce additional electricity from waste heat, were commissioned in June 2002; the combined-cycle technology adds 150 MW of supply and reduces our greenhouse gas emissions by an amount equal to emissions from 30,000 cars!
• Three natural gas turbines were added in 2010. Each one provides 36-net MW for a total of 108-net MW
• Total generating capacity 430-net MW

The QEII is just on the edge of the City of Saskatoon boundary.

Saskatoon Light & Power controls the distribution grid in the City of Saskatoon in the city's original 1958 boundaries which includes the energy-intensive downtown core. It would seem that a district heating project in the Northern part of the downtown core may be feasible.