SaskPower announced this morning their decision to not proceed with the plan to retrofit Boundary Dam units 4 and 5 for carbon capture.

"They would require significant capital upgrades just to make them able to be attached or compatible to carbon capture and sequestration technology," said Dustin Duncan, Minister in Charge of SaskPower, noting that the units are nearing 50 years old.

“They are smaller sized units, and so we think that there likely would be a better business case with the Shand power plant at some point in the future, so we're doing some feasibility work around Shand," he noted.

“When we ran numbers on retrofitting 4 and 5, it just didn't make sense, the business case just wasn't there compared to alternative, like natural gas and other alternatives, which are available into the future," he added.

He said that the decision will not affect business as usual in the area.

"It really doesn't change," said Duncan. "Boundary Dam 3 is the CCS unit that we have within SaskPower's fleet, and it will continue to operate.”

Duncan noted that BD3 was affected, however, by a storm that hit the area in late June.

“So there's some work being done to make a determination to see when we can get that unit back up and running,” he said. “Once that is determined and fixed, we'll be capturing carbon again."

"We've had a great last number of months capturing carbon dioxide and using it in the oil patch in southeast Saskatchewan," said Duncan. “So this decision today on four and five, it doesn't effect Boundary Dam 3, and it doesn't affect the other units as well. We're not closing the door on Poplar 1 and 2 or on Shand, or Boundary Dam 6.”

“The most immediate decision we need to make is on 4 and 5,” he clarified. “So, we've made the decision just based on the fact that there isn't a business case to support the decision, we're not going to be doing CCS on four and five and we'll turn our focus elsewhere."

"Coal is going to continue to be an important part of the power mix in Saskatchewan," Duncan noted. "Certainly the BD3 unit will allow us to continue to use coal into the future because of the fact that it does well exceed the emissions standards that are set out by the federal government.”

As for the future potential, Duncan said there is time.

“We have until 2029 for the other power units that use coal to make decisions whether or not to use CCS. If we don't use CCS, then according to the federal regulations, we have to shut them down.”

He said the decision also won’t affect how SaskPower does business.

"This really doesn't impact the other units, it doesn't impact BD3, and we are doing everything we can to mitigate any job impacts that it might have," he said, adding that the roughly 40 employees at units 4 and 5 will not lose their jobs, nor will the positions close.

"We don't expect any job losses out of SaskPower because of this," said Duncan.