Project Profile End of an Era After burning its last piece of coal, OPG Atikokan begins the transition to pellet power. By Andrew Macklin W hen the Ontario govern-ment introduced the Green Energy Act in 2009, it sought to create a greener economy. The elimination of coal-fired energy generation, targeted for the end of 2014, meant that there would be a need for an increased amount of renewable energy solutions for Ontario’s energy supply mix. But it also meant that it was up to Ontario Power Generation to find new solutions for generating electricity at several key power stations across the province. “OPG is committed to making sure that all coal-fired plants in Ontario are convert-ed on schedule, by the end of 2014,” said Chris Fralick, plant manager, northwest thermal for OPG. One of the four coal-fired generating stations affected by the Green Energy Act and operated by OPG, is located on the outskirts of Atikokan, Ont, a community of close to 3,000 located 200 kilometres west of Thunder Bay. The facility opened in 1985 using coal-fired power generation. At its peak, the generating unit can produce up to 211 megawatts of power. Annually, the plant produces as much as 1 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, or enough to supply approximately 83,000 homes and businesses for one year. The power supply is primarily used to provide power dur-ing peak demand times, as well as to back up electricity generation. To generate that much power, the Atikokan facility burns 90,000 tonnes of coal annually. The coal being used to power OPG’s Atikokan was low sulphur lignite coal, which was being transported by train from Western Canada. The coal was burned in a lignite-fired boiler, which uses recirculated flue gas from the top of the boiler to heat and remove moisture from the coal. Once the lignite is dried, it has the tendency to ig-nite spontaneously. However, the use of flue gas as the drying method does help to pre-vent that. Lignite-fired boilers also include the use of special pulverizers that grind the ABOVE: Construction is underway on the west side of the OPG Atikokan site, which will house the wood pellet storage and handling facilities. 16 Canadian BIOMASS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012
Canadian Biomass November/December 2012: Page 16
