Aspen Power Station Project
How B&W Energy Services brought combined-cycle pre-commissioning expertise and early- engagement engineering to Saskatchewan’s newest natural gas facility
$0 MW
Combined-Cycle Power Generation Capacity
3rd
SaskPower Combined-Cycle Plant for B&W
0
B&W Services Deployed
2027
Planned In-Service Date
The Challenge: Pre-Commissioning at Scale in Western Canada
Aspen Power Station, located 20 kilometers east of Lanigan, Saskatchewan, is SaskPower’s third combined-cycle natural gas facility, and its most capable one yet. Designed with a unique bypass stack that allows operation in both combined and simple-cycle modes, Aspen Power Station adds flexible, dispatchable power generation to a grid that must balance intermittent renewables against year-round demand across a large geographic area.
With more than 62 kilometers of pipe on site, the pre-commissioning scope for this project was substantial. Every section of pipe, every boiler system and every lube oil circuit had to be cleaned to exacting specifications before equipment could be commissioned and brought online.
Construction debris, mill scale and preservation compounds introduced during fabrication and installation may be invisible to the naked eye but catastrophic to turbines, compressors and heat recovery systems at startup.
Key Pre-Commissioning Challenges
- Combined-cycle configuration requires coordinated cleaning of steam, water and lube oil systems across interdependent equipment trains
- HRSG and steam piping demand engineered steam blows to remove mill scale before the gas turbine’s first fire, since contamination that reaches the turbine can’t be recovered
- Lube oil systems serving the gas turbine generator and steam turbine generator require flushing to ISO cleanliness standards before bearing lubrication can begin
- Bypass stack design introduces additional piping configurations not present in conventional combined-cycle plants
- Construction timeline drives a compressed commissioning window, since pre-commissioning work must integrate with an active site operating at 800+ workers per day
B&W’s Role: Early Engagement Through Execution
B&W Energy Services has now supported pre-commissioning on all three of SaskPower’s combined-cycle natural gas facilities: Chinook, Great Plains and Aspen. That continuity means B&W brought existing familiarity with SaskPower’s standards, processes and expectations to Aspen from day one.
B&W’s in-house engineering team was engaged at Aspen Power Station before field work began to:
- Review P&IDs
- Identify cleaning sequence dependencies
- Develop pre-commissioning specifications that aligned with the construction schedule rather than reacting to it
Why This Project Required B&W
Burns & McDonnell and SaskPower needed a pre-commissioning partner with:
- A proven track record on both prior SaskPower combined-cycle plants
- The engineering capability to engage during construction planning, not just at mechanical completion
- The breadth of service to cover chemical cleaning, steam blowing, AquaLazing and high-velocity oil flushing under a single scope of work
- Proprietary AquaLazing technology to reduce water consumption and eliminate chemical use in applicable systems
- Experience with HRSG steam blowing in combined-cycle configurations
Project Quick Facts
Location:
Lanigan, Saskatchewan, * Canada
Owner:
SaskPower
EPC Partner:
Burns & McDonnell
Facility:
Combined-Cycle Natural Gas Plant
Capacity:
370 MW
2027:
2027
Homes Powered:
370,000
“When you’ve worked through commissioning with a utility on multiple plants, you’re not starting from scratch on the third. You understand their cleanliness standards, their documentation requirements and how they operate. That continuity is something a new contractor can’t easily replicate.”
— B&W Project Management Team
Deep Dive: Services Deployed at Aspen Power Station
Chemical Cleaning
B&W’s chemical cleaning circuits remove the mill scale, rust and construction deposits that accumulate inside new piping during fabrication and installation—contamination that steam blowing alone can’t address.
Steam Blowing
Combined-cycle HRSGs require high-velocity steam to dislodge mill scale and debris from steam piping before the gas turbine is exposed to the steam circuit. B&W’s engineering reduces the required number of steam blows while meeting or exceeding disturbance factor targets.
AquaLazing
B&W’s proprietary AquaLazing technology delivers high-pressure water cleaning without chemicals, which is ideal for systems where chemical residue is a concern and water conservation matters. On combined-cycle projects, AquaLazing complements chemical cleaning and steam blowing to achieve full system cleanliness.
High-Velocity Oil Flushing
B&W’s specially designed equipment can perform a high-velocity oil flush in 5-7 days, compared to the average 1-2-month process, while ensuring your oil meets the required particle counts and complies with all OEM specifications.
Early-Engagement Engineering
B&W’s early engagement means our engineers are part of the commissioning planning process before the first wrench turns to review drawings, identify system interdependencies and develop pre-commissioning procedures that integrate with the construction schedule.
Saskatchewan’s Grid, Strengthened for 25 Years
Aspen Power Station adds 370 MW of flexible, dispatchable generation to Saskatchewan’s grid: a capacity that can ramp up in minutes to balance wind and solar variability while sustaining 24/7 output when base load demands it. B&W’s pre-commissioning work ensures that capacity is available from the first day of commercial operation and that 370,000 Saskatchewan homes will be powered at full capacity.
Planning a Combined-Cycle Project?
Early engagement is one of the best pre-commissioning decisions you can make. B&W’s engineers can integrate into your commissioning planning before mechanical completion to reduce schedule risk and eliminate reactive scope changes downstream.
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