Cory Cogeneration Station

• Natural gas-fired cogeneration facility located at Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc.’s (PCS) Cory mine site, near Saskatoon.
• A 50-50 joint venture between SaskPower and ATCO Power.
• Operates mostly in cogeneration mode (with a generating capacity of 249 megawatts), which is the simultaneous production of electricity and steam from a single fuel source using combustion gas turbines, heat-recovery steam generators and steam turbine technology.
• Facility is also convertible to operate in a straight combined-cycle mode (with a generating capacity of 260 megawatts), a process that combines a natural gas turbine and a steam turbine to generate electricity only.
• Plant consists of two natural gas-fuelled combustion turbines and generators.
• Design enables it to generate electricity with minimal effect on the environment. Both of the gas turbines are equipped with low nitrogen oxide combustors to minimize the environmental impacts of generating electricity.
• Turns approximately 60 per cent of the natural gas’s potential energy into electricity and steam, compared to an average of 33 per cent achieved by conventional power stations, while emissions of greenhouse gases are only about one third of a similarly sized coal-fired power station.
• Natural gas fuel interconnection to TransGas system.
• Water supply pipeline interconnection to SaskWater system.

Simple cycle gas turbines, also referred to as open-cycle gas turbines, have the ability to be turned on and off within minutes. For this reason, these turbines are typically used to supply power during peak loads, such as mornings and suppertime.

Most of the energy potential of fuel is wasted with simple cycle gas turbines when hot exhaust gases are released into the atmosphere.

In combined cycle facilities, the exhaust gases from each gas turbine are captured and redirected into a waste-heat recovery boiler to produce steam.

This steam is used to power a steam turbine, which generates additional electricity.