{"id":97878,"date":"2025-08-26T08:39:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T08:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/97878\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T08:39:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T08:39:09","slug":"saskatchewan-budgets-900-million-to-refurbish-coal-plants-says-no-gas-conversions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/97878\/","title":{"rendered":"Saskatchewan budgets $900-million to refurbish coal plants, says no gas conversions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A dragline works in coal pits in front of the SaskPower Shand Power Station in 2008. Saskatchewan plans to extend the lives of its three coal-fired power plants past the federal phase-out deadline.Troy Fleece\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Saskatchewan is budgeting $900-million over four years to refurbish its three coal-fired power plants and extend their lives well past a federal 2030 phase-out deadline, the government says, citing energy security needs as it doubles down on its reliance on the fossil fuel. <\/p>\n

Saskatchewan\u2019s Crown electricity provider, SaskPower, had been developing a plan for the province\u2019s future grid since 2022. A large part of that involved consultations with the public, but in none of those discussions on power generation preferences did it mention coal. <\/p>\n

SaskPower Minister Jeremy Harrison told The Globe and Mail in a recent interview that the province had assessed its power supply options based on three factors: energy security, reliability and affordability. <\/p>\n

But affordability did not play a major role in the decision to extend the life of its coal-fired power plants, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re importing over 90 per cent of our natural gas right now from Alberta and from the United States. Energy security was really the driver of this decision.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said that the $900-million budget will cover the vast majority of the capital needed to keep the coal plants producing power. <\/p>\n

Saskatchewan says Ottawa can\u2019t stop it from extending life of coal-fired power plants<\/a><\/p>\n

Alberta regulator approves controversial coal exploration applications at Grassy Mountain<\/a><\/p>\n

Even though cost wasn\u2019t a major factor in the decision to keep burning coal, Mr. Harrison said initial estimates put the price tag at around half that of building brand new gas-fired power plants that would produce roughly the same amount of electricity. <\/p>\n

The Great Plains Power Station, which opened in 2024 in Moose Jaw, has a 370-megawatt capacity. It cost $825-million, according to SaskPower\u2019s annual report. Construction on a second new gas-fired plant \u2013 the Aspen Power Station, near Lanigan \u2013 started in April, 2024. SaskPower estimates the construction of that 370-MW plant will cost around $1.7-billion. <\/p>\n

In neighbouring Alberta, the province\u2019s last coal-fired power plant went dark in June, 2024<\/a> \u2013 years ahead of the 2030 target set by the province\u2019s NDP government in 2015. <\/p>\n

Alberta companies made the change rapidly. Coal accounted for 80 per cent of Alberta\u2019s electricity grid in the early 2000s and 60 per cent in 2014. A decade later, it was done. <\/p>\n

The phase-out of coal resulted in a 60-per-cent plunge in emissions from Alberta\u2019s power fleet since 2005, according to provincial data. <\/p>\n

One Alberta company, TransAlta Corp., spent $295-million<\/a> in its coal-to-gas conversion program between 2019 and 2021. That work included the conversion of various units at its Sundance, Keephills and Sheerness plants, and the construction of new high-volume gas delivery infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Together, TransAlta\u2019s units produce roughly 1,667 MW \u2013 slightly more than Saskatchewan\u2019s three coal-fired plants \u2013 Shand, Poplar River and Boundary Dam \u2013 which together produce around 1,608 MW. <\/p>\n

But Mr. Harrison rejected the notion of converting Saskatchewan\u2019s coal-fired plants to gas, citing the increasing cost of materials and the price tag for physical infrastructure that would transport natural gas to power plants. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still very expensive from a capital perspective,\u201d he said, adding that converting coal plants to use natural gas would also do little for the province\u2019s energy security. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as the absolute core of our power generation base load, it is coal, and it\u2019s going to continue to be coal,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Alberta energy watchdog CEO cancels coal hearing in unprecedented move<\/a><\/p>\n

Roughly 100 years\u2019 supply of coal is buried beneath the province, much of it close to the power plants in the southeast. As far as Mr. Harrison is concerned, it only makes sense for Saskatchewan to take advantage of its own resources to avoid imports of natural gas to feed power stations and circumvent price spikes for the fossil fuel. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know where the coal is. We know that we have it and we own it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole point of this is bridging to nuclear power generation using Saskatchewan uranium, for much the same reasons that I\u2019m talking about in the space of coal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saskatchewan has pledged to bring grid emissions to net-zero by 2050. Mr. Harrison said the goal relies on nuclear power generation, but the jury is still out on whether it will be produced by small modular reactors or a large-scale plant. <\/p>\n

Either way, he said, he would like to see the federal government come on board with Saskatchewan\u2019s plans to help develop a national nuclear sector. <\/p>\n

Saskatchewan\u2019s decision to keep its coal-fired plants in operation will run afoul of the federal government\u2019s rules to phase out the fossil fuel in power production by 2030. <\/p>\n

Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper first mandated a nationwide phase-out of conventional coal-fired electricity in Canada in 2012, setting a target of 2061. <\/p>\n

The federal Liberal government amended those regulations in December, 2018, accelerating the deadline. But the Saskatchewan Party government has said that those rules are unconstitutional, because energy is under provincial jurisdiction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A dragline works in coal pits in front of the SaskPower Shand Power…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-97878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}