A joint venture of Alberici and Balzer’s Canada will install a new 160-megawatt steam turbine at Unit 3 at the Boundary Dam Power Station, as part of the integrated carbon capture and storage project underway at Boundary Dam.

The turbine installation project also marks Alberici’s entry into the growing industrial construction market in Western Canada.

“Alberici is bringing its core capabilities to serve the economically strong Western Canadian region,” said Alberici Western Constructors president Craig Fesler.

The work is an important component of the project, which is the world’s first and largest commercial-scale, coal-fired carbon capture and sequestration project. The captured carbon dioxide will be stored in a deep saline reservoir or used for enhanced oil recovery.

Alberici Western Constructors formed a joint venture with Balzer’s Canada Inc., an industrial and plant maintenance contractor based in Regina, to perform the project. The team will remove the existing steam turbine at Unit 3, and replace it with the new 160-megawatt Hitachi steam turbine.

It will also replace other mechanical equipment like the feedwater heating plant. The expected value of the contract is $67 million.

The turbine replacement is part of an innovative carbon capture project that SaskPower is undertaking to transform Boundary Dam Power Station into a reliable, long-term producer of clean base-load electricity. The project will reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of the plant by one million metric tons per year.

The turbine will be replaced during a six-month shutdown at the plant that is planned to last from March 1 to August 31.