Photos and support materials for media

CALGARY, Alberta (Sept. 28, 2016) — SaskPower has awarded a contract to Burns & McDonnell for comprehensive engineer-procure-construct (EPC) services for the new Chinook Power Station, a 350-megawatt (MW) natural gas-fired power facility to be located in Southwestern Saskatchewan. SaskPower is a provincial Crown Corporation and Saskatchewan’s leading energy supplier. The company issued a formal notice to proceed in July and engineering design is underway.

The plant will be built on a greenfield site in a rural area near Swift Current, Saskatchewan. The plant site is located in Southwestern Saskatchewan, about 100 miles north of the Canada/U.S. border. Pending environmental approval, construction is expected to begin as early as late 2016, with the plant being commissioned and in service in late 2019.

“Chinook Power Station is going to play a major part in helping SaskPower continue to meet a growing demand for power in Saskatchewan,” said SaskPower President and CEO Mike Marsh. “We’re pleased to be teaming with Burns & McDonnell as our EPC contractor on this critical project.” 

Burns & McDonnell teamed with the SaskPower engineering group in submitting the winning bid as part of a competitive bid process that attracted five competing proposals from independent power providers (IPPs). As EPC contractor, Burns & McDonnell will work closely with SaskPower engineers and construction management staff on all phases of the project. 

The combined-cycle facility will feature a Siemens F-Class gas turbine, a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) and a Siemens steam turbine to boost power output and maximize energy efficiency while reducing the overall emissions footprint. The highly efficient combined-cycle operation will use exhaust heat that would otherwise be lost in a simple-cycle configuration. The hot exhaust from the initial cycle is captured to boil water into steam in the HRSG and spin an additional second generator to produce more power. Combined-cycle technology is widely acknowledged for its fuel efficiency and low emissions footprint. The combined-cycle unit will also significantly reduce water use thanks to a plant design that will incorporate advanced air cooling.

Up to 500 craft and tradesmen will be employed on the project during peak construction. SaskPower estimates that about 25 workers will be needed when the Chinook Power Station goes into operation, ranging from operators and engineers. 

Natural gas for the plant will be supplied under a long-term contract with TransGas via a large-capacity pipeline that runs in close proximity to the plant site. TransGas is a subsidiary of SaskEnergy and serves producers and end users in Saskatchewan and other western Canada provinces.

“We’re very gratified by the confidence SaskPower has shown in us,” says Chris Lehan, Vice President of Energy in Canada for Burns & McDonnell. “We have a track record of taking on the most complex power projects in the industry under difficult and challenging conditions and take great pride in coming through for our clients.” 

Burns & McDonnell provided engineering, procurement and construction management services to SaskPower for its recently completed 204-MW expansion of the Queen Elizabeth Power Station near Saskatoon. The project required a conversion of simple-cycle to combined-cycle technology for improved efficiency. 

About Burns & McDonnell

Burns & McDonnell is a company made up of more than 5,300 engineers, architects, construction professionals, scientists, consultants and entrepreneurs with offices in Calgary and Toronto, across the United States and throughout the world. Burns & McDonnell is ranked as the No. 1 power engineering design firm by Engineering News-Record magazine and is ranked No. 14 overall among the Top 500 engineering design firms. We strive to create amazing success for our clients and amazing careers for our employee-owners. Burns & McDonnell is 100 percent employee-owned and is proud to be No. 16 on Fortune’s 2016 list of 100 Best Companies to Work For.