Responsibility
Emissions
Burning fossil fuels to generate electricity creates greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, water vapour and chlorofluorocarbons), which are widely believed to be responsible for climate change.
SaskPower is making progress in reducing these emissions through generating efficiency improvements, adding cogeneration and green power to our generating mix and investing in research on how to remove greenhouse gases from emissions.
We work closely with federal and provincial regulators to ensure that strict guidelines and standards for emissions are not exceeded.
NOxs and SOx
SaskPower is striving to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen
- gases that can lead to acid rain when they mix with moisture in the air.
Mercury
New federal regulations require a reliable method of monitoring mercury
emissions. At our Emissions Control Research Facility at Poplar River Power
Station, we are exploring and developing technologies for mercury control.
Ash and flyash
Burning lignite coal at our thermal generating stations creates ash that
must be managed very carefully.
Heavy ash is either stored on-site in environmentally sound ash storage
lagoons or storage facilities.
Flyash, the particles that would normally escape from the smoke stacks of our
coal-fired power stations, is captured using electrostatic precipitators (ESPs),
typically in the order of 96 to 99.5 per cent. Flyash is sold for use in
building materials, such as concrete, reducing emissions created in the production
of these materials.
Liquid effluents
Liquid emissions or effluents are not released into the environment unless
approved by the appropriate provincial regulatory agency. While cooling water
at some of the older plants may be discharged to cooling reservoirs or rivers,
at our newest coal-fired generating facility,
Shand
Power Station, no water is allowed to be released from this site.
