PELLET¦ AGS EVENT TIMELINE
1985: Begins operations
2007: Ontario passes coal phase-out law
2006: Ontario government allots $4 million to biomass research center
2010: Ontario government directs power authority to contract biomass PPA
2008: AGS begins test firing wood pellets
2012: Biomass conversion at AGS begins
2011: OPG conducts sustainability analysis
While work on the $170 million project began last September, research of and plans to utilize biomass fuel span many years back.
History Back in the 1970s, Ontario Hydro—Ontario Power Generation’s predecessor—conducted preliminary investigations of biomass potential that included successful test burns of waste grain material at a number of OPG’s coal-fired stations, AGS among them. AGS began operations in 1985 and today employs about 85 people. In 2006, the provincial government allocated $4 million to build the Atikokan Biomass Research Center, and after a great deal of research and test burns over the next few years—as well as the passage of a province-wide law that required the cessation of coal use
at all power stations by Dec. 31, 2014—the project began to gain momentum and make sense to stakeholders and the community. Finally, a major milestone was reached in 2010, when the Ontario Minister of En2014: AGS ergy announced the official conversion, to begin and directed the Ontario Power Authority operations to negotiate a Power Purchase Agreement with Ontario Power Generation for biomass-generated electricity from AGS. Even further research was done then, including 2014 : Coal sustainability and safe handling and storage use in Ontario analyses, engineering concept studies and ceases according to combustion and ash studies. mandate Initially, the converted plant will cover peak demand, outages and weather-related needs, but using biomass will retain the plant’s capability of producing at full load of 205 MW. The conversion to biomass will cost less than building a new natural gas plant. While the cost of powering with wood pellets will be more expensive than coal, the plant will be able to meet the no-coal provincial mandate at minimal costs. While AGS isn’t the largest biomass conversion completed or ongoing, it is certainly notable—conversion of a lignite coal generating station to biomass has never been completed on such a scale. “Therefore, the technical solutions determined for this plant are very leading edge,” says AGS Station Manager Brent Boyko. “Components were chosen based on well-established industry success; however, the overall integration for this application is the first of its kind.” It’s actually far more challenging to retrofit a plant than to open a new one, according to Boyko. At AGS, that includes overhauling