NAEMA is providing the below Request for Information (“RFI”) on behalf of our member SaskPower.
SaskPower is the main supplier of electricity in Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded as the Saskatchewan Power Commission in 1929 and reorganized as a Crown corporation under The Power Corporation Act of Saskatchewan, our mission is to ensure reliable, sustainable and cost-effective power for our customers and the communities we serve.
SaskPower serves more than 530,000 customer accounts. The company owns and operates three coal-fired power stations, seven hydroelectric stations, seven natural gas stations and two wind facilities with an aggregate generating capacity of approximately 4,000 megawatts. SaskPower also has 26 contracts with independent power producers in operation that supply approximately an additional 1,442 megawatts of electricity to the grid sourced from natural gas, wind, solar, and biomass facilities, as well as imports from outside the province.
SaskPower is on track to reduce emissions by 50 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 as part of Saskatchewan’s cleaner energy future. In order to make deep emission reductions, SaskPower will be working with independent power producers to develop significant renewable generation additions in Saskatchewan. Executing on plans to transition to lower carbon-producing generation through in-province generation development will be critical to SaskPower’s future.
SaskPower has announced an increase of interconnection capacity between Saskatchewan and the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), increasing to 650 MW and targeted to be in-service as of October 1, 2027. Expanding transmission interconnections with SPP will help enhance reliability, resiliency and flexibility of SaskPower’s system and enable future renewable generation development in Saskatchewan.
Prior to constructing expanded interconnection facilities, SaskPower is seeking to identify potential options for import sourced from the SPP footprint of up to 500 MW of firm capacity and energy to be available as early as October 1, 2027.
Responses to this RFI may include solutions that include firm capacity and energy supplied from facilities currently in-service or from facilities to be constructed. In either scenario, such facilities should be online in accordance with the details and timeline outlined in Appendix A – Overview.
The RFI can be found below:
1009772 RFI 500MW of Firm Capacity and Energy (Final) October 14 2022