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Thunder Bay Generating Station is a defunct biomass-fired
The Thunder Bay Generating Station ranked within the top 200 facility emitters, according to Environment Canada.
*Calculated figures for CO2e are rounded to the nearest tonne.
Thunder Bay Generating Station Information Brochure
Ontario Power Generation: Thunder Bay Generating Station
Archived version of "Ontario Power Generation: Thunder Bay Generating Station" (saved 30 March 2019)
{{Fossil fuel power ON Ontario Power Generation Buildings and structures in Thunder Bay Energy infrastructure completed in 1963 Energy infrastructure completed in 2015 Ontario electricity policy Former coal-fired power stations in Canada 1963 establishments in Ontario Biomass power stations in Ontario 2018 disestablishments in Ontario Demolished buildings and structures in Ontario Buildings and structures demolished in 2021
thermal power station
A thermal power station is a type of power station in which heat energy is converted to electrical energy. In a steam-generating cycle heat is used to boil water in a large pressure vessel to produce high-pressure steam, which drives a stea ...
owned by Ontario Power Generation
Ontario Power Generation Inc. (OPG) is a Crown corporation and "government business enterprise" that is responsible for approximately half of the electricity generation in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is wholly owned by the governmen ...
("OPG"). It is located on Mission Island in Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population i ...
, on the shore of Lake Superior
Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...
.
Thunder Bay GS was in operation from 1963 to 2018. It was the last coal fired station in Ontario. The plant was initially shut down in April 2014 as part of Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
's phase out of coal-fired electricity generation, before being converted to run on advanced biomass (wood pellets) and recommissioned on February 9, 2015.
Historic operations
Thunder Bay GS began operation in 1963, with one 100 MW coal-fuelled generating unit. Two additional coal-fuelled units were added in the early 1980s, and in 1984 the original 100 MW unit was removed from service. This plant is connected to thepower grid
An electrical grid is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids vary in size and can cover whole countries or continents. It consists of:Kaplan, S. M. (2009). Smart Grid. Electrical Power ...
via 115 kV and 230 kV transmission lines
In electrical engineering, a transmission line is a specialized cable or other structure designed to conduct electromagnetic waves in a contained manner. The term applies when the conductors are long enough that the wave nature of the transmis ...
. The station occupies on Mission Island, at the mouth of the Kaministiquia River
The Kaministiquia River is a river which flows into western Lake Superior at the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario. ''Kaministiquia'' (''Gaa-ministigweyaa'') is an Ojibwe word meaning "where a stream flows in island" due to two large islands (McKellar ...
delta
Delta commonly refers to:
* Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet
* River delta, at a river mouth
* D ( NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta")
* Delta Air Lines, US
* Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19
Delta may also ...
on Thunder Bay. The plant's main chimney was tall. The stack was demolished on September 9, 2021.
The two coal-fuelled boilers provided a peak output of 326 MW fuelled by low- sulphur lignite coal
Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...
from the Ravenscrag Formation
The Ravenscrag Formation is a stratigraphic unit of early Paleocene age in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It was named for the settlement of Ravenscrag, Saskatchewan, and was first described from outcrops at Ravenscrag Butte near the Fr ...
in Southern Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...
and low-sulphur sub-bituminous coal from the Powder River Basin
The Powder River Basin is a geologic structural basin in southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming, about east to west and north to south, known for its extensive coal reserves. The former hunting grounds of the Oglala Lakota, the area is very s ...
in the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
.
While operating as a coal plant, annual production was approximately 1.5 billion kilowatt-hours
A kilowatt-hour ( unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. In terms of SI derived units with special names, it equals 3.6 megajoules (MJ). Kilowatt-hours are a common bi ...
(kWh), enough energy to supply over 100,000 households for one year.
Conversion from coal
There were multiple announcements on the future of Thunder Bay GS over a 10-year period. The Ontario government initially proposed a conversion tonatural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
in 2004 but subsequently cancelled that plan in 2006.
Then, as part of the 2010 Long-Term Energy Plan, Ontario's Ministry of Energy announced that Thunder Bay GS would be converted from coal to natural gas by the end of 2014. This was part of the Ontario government's commitment to phase out all of its coal-burning power generation.
On 1 November 2012, OPG announced that the Ontario Power Authority
The Ontario Power Authority (OPA) was an independent, non-profit corporation established through the Electricity Restructuring Act, 2004 (Bill 100). Licensed by the Ontario Energy Board, it reported to the Ontario legislature through the Ministry ...
requested that the conversion to natural gas be suspended until the Ontario Power Authority could assess generating needs in northwestern Ontario. The next announcement on the generating station's fate was made in November 2013 when the Ministry of Energy announced that Thunder Bay GS would be converted to advanced biomass.
Ontario’s Minister of Energy Bob Chiarelli outlined the broad terms of the conversion in a directive to the Ontario Power Authority dated 16 December 2013. Chiarelli noted that the station will have only one unit operating as a peaking plant and that OPG is only permitted to purchase 15,000 tonnes of fuel annually. It was estimated that the 15,000 tonnes of fuel will permit the single unit to operate at 2% of capacity.
The generating station will have a five-year contract to produce electricity starting in January 2015.
, the plant burns steam treated wood pellets ( biocoal) from Arbaflame in Norway.
On July 27, 2018 OPG and IESO announced the closure of Thunder Bay Generating Station due to having a leak in the boiler causing the station to be shut down since May. Estimated repair costs would be about $5 million and the contract expiration in 2020 was not intended to be renewed.
In 2021 demolition began on the generation station by Hamilton-based company, Budget Demolition. The work is expected to take two to three years and the majority of the materials will be recycled. The 650-foot chimney came down in a controlled demolition on 9 September 2021 and was captured on video on YouTube.
Emissions
The Thunder Bay Generating Station ranked within the top 200 facility emitters, according to Environment Canada.
*Calculated figures for CO2e are rounded to the nearest tonne.
See also
* Atikokan Generating Station * Kakabeka Generating Station *List of power stations in Canada
Canada is home to a wide variety of power stations (or generating stations). The lists below outline power stations of significance by type, or by the province/territory in which they reside.
By type
The following pages lists the power stations ...
References
Thunder Bay Generating Station Information Brochure
External links
Ontario Power Generation: Thunder Bay Generating Station
Archived version of "Ontario Power Generation: Thunder Bay Generating Station" (saved 30 March 2019)
{{Fossil fuel power ON Ontario Power Generation Buildings and structures in Thunder Bay Energy infrastructure completed in 1963 Energy infrastructure completed in 2015 Ontario electricity policy Former coal-fired power stations in Canada 1963 establishments in Ontario Biomass power stations in Ontario 2018 disestablishments in Ontario Demolished buildings and structures in Ontario Buildings and structures demolished in 2021