MOOSE JAW — With SaskPower’s Great Plains Power Station (GPPS) now fully operational, presented below are facts, figures and other interesting data about the venue.
The plant is a 370-megawatt (MW) combined cycle venue — it can power almost 10 cities like Moose Jaw — with two generators that each send power to the grid.
One generator is natural gas-fired that combusts compressed air and natural gas, which drives a turbine and generator and sends power to the grid. The second generator uses steam, where after hot gas drives the natural gas generator, the heat makes steam to turn another turbine and another generator.
The plant has an anticipated life cycle of 25 years, has a footprint of 43.2 hectares (108.13 acres), has a smokestack 52 metres (170 feet) high, took 45 months to complete from March 2021 to December 2024 and required more than 600 workers — 70 per cent were from Saskatchewan, while 14 per cent were from the Moose Jaw area — during peak construction in July 2023.
Those workers contributed more than 2.9 million hours of labour.
Moreover, the value of participation from over 300 Saskatchewan businesses was $267 million, while the value of Aboriginal-owned business participation was $49 million.
Meanwhile, 25 full-time employees will operate the plant, with the venue contributing an extra $60 million in revenue for the province and creating 35 other jobs through services provided to the plant and employee spending.
Plant overview
Site construction cleared or excavated 26,000 cubic metres of material and required 8,800 metric tons of gravel, 1,400 piles, 11,200 cubic metres of concrete, 3,400 metric tons of steel, over 20 kilometres of piping, 200 kilometres of cables and 40,000 structural bolts.
Water treatment plant
The water treatment plant is designed to process 7.7 cubic metres per hour (34 gallons per minute) of service water and create demineralized water for the steam cycle. The treatment includes two ultrafiltration units, two reverse osmosis units and four mixed-bed de-ionizers to produce high-quality demineralized water so plaque build-up does not occur.
Also, the power station uses less than one per cent of Moose Jaw’s average annual water consumption.
Steam turbine and generator
The 118-MW air-cooled Siemens generator runs between two steam turbine sections, with a high-pressure turbine producing 7,116 revolutions per minute (RPM) and an intermediate pressure/low-pressure turbine directly coupled at 3,600 RPM.
Siemens in Germany was responsible for manufacturing the steam turbine and generator.
Gas turbine and generator
The Siemens-built gas turbine consumes 64,756 cubic metres per hour of natural gas and uses more gas in one hour than 26 homes use in a year. This piece connects to a generator that rotates at 3,600 RPM and produces 265 MW down to -12 C.
Furthermore, the gas turbine and generator weigh roughly 500,000 kilograms, which is the same weight — according to SaskPower — as 50 Mac the Moose statues.
Siemens manufactures these parts in Charlotte, N.C.
Emergency diesel generator
The plant has a Cummins emergency diesel generator with 1,470 horsepower that produces 1,250 kilowatts, with the generator providing essential emergency power when the grid experiences a power loss.
The engine — a cast-iron V16 engine block with 50.3-litre displacement — will start automatically and power emergency lighting and critical equipment to ensure they are shut down in a safe and controlled manner without damaging the equipment.
Cummins fabricates the generator in Surrey, British Columbia.
Switching station
The Great Plains switching station connects the plant to the grid and includes high-voltage breakers, isolating switches, voltage and current measurement devices, and solid aluminum tube conducts. Furthermore, the station is in a loop configuration to allow the isolation of one generating unit while maintaining a connection to the grid with the other unit.
The switching station produces 230,000 volts, while the Hitachi Energy-manufactured breakers are 253,000 volts/2,000 amperes/60 hertz and the Mindcore Technologies-manufactured isolating switches have the same values.
Heat recovery steam generator
This generator is 34 metres (110 feet) tall and is a triple-wide, triple-pressure reheat design that produces high-pressure steam at 16,486 kilopascals (kPA) and 568 C, intermediate-pressure steam at 4,186 kPA and 565 C and low-pressure steam at 714 kPa and 312 C.
Furthermore, some sections of the steam piping wall are 2.8 centimetres thick.
China fabricated the steam drums and vertical tube sections, while Canadian Plains in White City manufactured the remaining plant piping.
Boiler feed pump
The two Japanese-manufactured Torishima boiler feed pumps produce 2,250 KW/3,020 horsepower and pressures up to 20,500 kPa, with the total flow from each pump at 4,200 litres per minute.
In comparison, an average household uses 32,000 litres of water per month, which means it would take one feed pump only two hours to fill the Temple Gardens Mineral Spa pool.
And now you know!
