SASKATOON -- Saskatoon Light & Power (SL&P), the city-owned utility, is out more than $100,000 after the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) pulled the plug on a partnership to deliver a combined heat power plant at St. Paul’s Hospital.
A report heading to city council Monday afternoon details the SHA’s decision to terminate the project, which would have produced electricity for SL&P and thermal energy that would have been used by the hospital’s heating system.
Combined heat and power plants use natural gas to produce both electricity and heat at the same time, with fewer greenhouse gas emissions than producing each separately, according to the report.
While the estimated construction cost for the project was pegged at $3,079,200, the SHA had secured $1.19 million in federal funding for the project.
However, city administration was recently informed the SHA had opted to cancel the project, citing risks and reliability concerns within the hospital setting as the main reasons for its decision, according to the report.
Work is underway to cancel the funding agreement previously signed with the federal government, the report says.
According to the city, SL&P had spent $108,181 on the now-terminated project.
The combined power plant at St. Paul’s was identified as one of the top 10 projects with the greatest savings-per-tonne of emissions in the city’s Low Emissions Community Plan.
The cost of the proposed plant would have been recouped in roughly 14-years time through carbon-offset credits, the report says.
This project was included in the city's planned actions to see a greenhouse gas emission reduction of 15 per cent by 2023.
