OPG completes major life-extension project at Darlington Nuclear Generating Station
At a glance
- Three new emergency power generators (EPGs) are now in service at Darlington Nuclear Generating Station.
- These important EPGs provide reliable backup power to support the station in case of an emergency.
- The 10-year EPG life-extension project and ongoing Darlington Refurbishment project will provide Ontario with 30-plus more years of clean power.
OPG’s Darlington Nuclear Generating Station now has three new emergency power generators (EPGs) standing by and ready to support the station for decades to come.
This past spring, the company’s Nuclear Projects team successfully wrapped up the major 10-year EPG life-extension project, which involved replacing two older generators with modern gas-turbine-driven generator sets and installing an additional third generator set.
Each turbine/generator set and its auxiliary systems is a standalone mini power plant capable of supplying eight megawatts of electricity to the Emergency Power System at Darlington Nuclear.
These generators play a key role in the station’s safety as they provide reliable backup power in case of an emergency.
“These three new emergency generators will provide reliable backup power to the Darlington Nuclear station to the end of the plant’s life, ensuring the safety of the station as well as community,” said Yousif Dweiri, Manager for the EPG replacement project at OPG. “The project overcame the challenges of COVID-19, and involved multiple local vendors and material suppliers, while providing hundreds of trades jobs over the years.”
These three new emergency generators will provide reliable backup power to the Darlington Nuclear station to the end of the plant’s life, ensuring the safety of the station as well as community.Yousif DweiriManager for the EPG replacement project
The project kicked off in 2013 starting with the design and installation of EPG3, an all-new third emergency generator for the station, completed in 2017. This was followed by the design and replacement of EPG2 in 2020, and finally the design and replacement of EPG1 this past spring.
Notably, the retired EPG2 turbine generator is set for a second round of duty as it will be used to help train future millwrights.
The decommissioned unit, which served Darlington for three decades, will be installed at the Millwright Regional Council of Ontario’s (MRCO) new Port Hope Millwright Training Centre when it’s finished construction. Once in place, millwright apprentices and journeyperson members will get a chance to ply their trade on the unit.
In particular, Indigenous participants of OPG’s Indigenous Opportunities Network (ION) and recent Indigenous graduates of MRCO’s Introduction to Millwrighting program will benefit from skills development on the repurposed equipment.
The EPG life-extension project has been a key upgrade for the station, and along with the ongoing Darlington Refurbishment will provide 30 more years of reliable, clean baseload power to support Ontario’s growth and electrification efforts.
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