NEWS FROM THE FIELD : ENERGY

Engineer to head U of S academics

Saskatoon StarPhoenix – The next head of academics at the University of Saskatchewan is Tony Vannelli, P.Eng. an electrical and computer engineer who spent the last 10 years running the University of Guelph’s College of Engineering and Physical Science.

Vannelli, who is also a 20-year veteran of the University of Waterloo, replaces Michael Atkinson as the U of S’s provost and vice-president academic effective Aug 1. His term is expected to last five years.

“My priority will be to continue aligning the strong academic mission of the university with our resources to assure success,” Vannelli said. “This is a very collegial and collaborative university and that strength is very important to me.”

In his new role, Vannelli will serve as the university’s senior academic, planning and budget officer and be responsible for building an academic plan connected to the university’s financial decisions, the U of S said in a news release. 
Vannelli earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics from Concordia University and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Waterloo.

Big dough for big science in Sask

Saskatoon StarPhoenix – Three University of Saskatchewan research centres have received a slice of $328 million in federal science funding.
The total $69-million investment “affirms the value to Canada of the world-class science being done within these unique centres,” U of S president Peter Stoicheff said.

The Canadian Light Source gets $48 million to support research in health, the environment, materials and agriculture.

The International Vaccine Centre, which provides the infrastructure to safely study infectious diseases of animals and humans and develop vaccines, receives $19.3 million.

Finally, $1.56 million goes to SuperDARN Canada, a U of S-led initiative operating five radar arrays across Canada that provide continuous mapping of space weather above Canada.

“Electromagnetic storms give us the beautiful displays of the aurora borealis but they can also damage key infrastructure on earth like pipeline, power grids and satellites in space,” SuperDARN Canada director and U of S space physicist Kathryn McWilliams said in the release.

“As an essential part of a global research partnership in 10 countries, the team at the U of S helps to continuously monitor how solar wind interacts with our planet. Interpreting this data is the first step to being able to predict and then mitigate the effects of extreme

Nasser Honoured – Again!

U of S news release – The College of Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan celebrated the achievements of alumnus and professor emeritus, Karim “Kay” Nasser, P. Eng., at the C.J. Mackenzie Gala of Engineering Excellence.

Each year the gala recognizes an alumnus who has achieved a position of distinction within their profession, honours their achievements by recognizing them as the evening’s Distinguished Lecturer and inducts them into the College of Engineering’s Alumni Wall of Distinction.

Nasser has a lifelong commitment to education, innovation, leadership and entrepreneurship. Born and raised in Lebanon, he earned his Bachelor of Science in Engineering at the American University in Beirut, his master’s at the University of Kansas and his Ph.D. at the U of S where he served as a professor of civil engineering for 33 years. His research led to the invention of the K-slump tester, a device that easily tests the consistency or slump of fresh concrete. The tester was used in the construction of Toronto’s CN Tower and is still widely used today.

Manitoba and Sask at odds over flood preparations

CTV News – Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister has accused the Saskatchewan government of not doing enough to fight flooding along interprovincial waterways.

Manitoba is already working with state governments in the United States to improve flood forecasting and land-use practices that can help retain water, Pallister said, but Saskatchewan is not engaged.
Pallister said he has talked with Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall about co-operating on flooding but Saskatchewan is “not yet at the table in a full way.”

Manitoba farm groups have long accused Saskatchewan of not following proper land-drainage rules, causing spring meltwater to rush downstream along the Assiniboine River and smaller rivers into Manitoba.
The issue last came to a head in 2014, when Manitoba called in the army and declared a state of emergency as water rushed in from Saskatchewan. Some crops were washed out and about 3 800 square kilometres of farmland went unseeded.

Later that year, Manitoba put up $50,000 to help establish the Assiniboine River Basin Commission along with North Dakota and other jurisdictions.
But Saskatchewan Environment said the blame for that year’s flooding lay with Mother Nature.

The Saskatchewan government said the province works closely with Manitoba and Alberta, as well as the United States, on water management. The province also has a 2015 memorandum of understanding with Manitoba on the issue, which includes drainage.
It also announced regulations that same year along with legislation introduced in the fall to control water flow.

The Manitoba government has raised concerns about possible flooding in the coming spring, due to heavy snowfall in December and high soil moisture levels from the fall.

New drainage project to help flooding

Regina Leader-Post – A new drainage project announced for the southeast portion of the province will allow for better control of water flows to reduce downstream flooding.

The Dry Lake Project, located within the Gooseberry Lake watershed, is a single permit issued to 73 landowners for more than 18,000 acres of an organized and responsibly managed drainage network — making it the largest drainage project in provincial history.

The project includes 30 gates which will be able to hold back water at certain times when the river volume is high to allow it to recede and release the water when it is safe to do so.

The project is unique given the number of landowners on a single permit. Previously each landowner would have had to apply for three permits for the drainage — a permit to construct, a permit to operate and an aquatic habitat protection permit.

Over the last few years, the drainage laws in Saskatchewan have changed to combat illegal drainage. In 2015 the laws were changed to streamline the application approval process and remove exemptions for drainage works constructed before 1981 from requiring an approval. Last year, changes were made to focus on ensuring projects are permitted when they have downstream landowner permission to drain and are draining into an adequate outlet.

The Water Security Agency is currently working with hundreds of other landowners on an additional 12 organized drainage projects making up more than 160,000 acres.

Unity has high hopes for waste water treatment technology

Marketwired release – The Town of Unity has fired up a first-of-its-kind-in-Canada wastewater treatment system and they have high hopes for the technology. In fact, the community’s administration believes that the results of the treatment system will surpass the “release of water to a fish-bearing environment” standards.

Two of the wastewater treatment systems were installed at Unity the end of 2016. and the systems went online January 11, 2017.

Unity began their search for a new wastewater treatment solution when they were told by the province of Saskatchewan that their current wastewater system could support 2,500 residents. Faced with the prospect of positive growth in the near future, the town then spent 18 months researching options. They finally settled on an Australian technology.

The town council settled on the wastewater treatment system, primarily due to economics. They stated that this was the most finaniually viable of all the options but added that the system is appealing for other reasons as well — mainly its small footprint and ease of use.

The two units will now run as a pilot project until they are approved by the Water Security Agency.

Still no funding answers for Gunnar cleanup

Saskatoon StarPhoenix – Deciding how much money should be committed to a massively over-budget plan to clean up an abandoned uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan has become a conundrum for all levels of government.

More than a quarter of the $268 million earmarked to clean up the derelict Gunnar mine has been spent and most of the real work has yet to happen.
Perched on the northern shore of Lake Athabasca about 800 kilometres north of Saskatoon, the Gunnar mine operated from 1955 to 1963; a year later, it was abandoned — the mine pit was flooded and the buildings left to decay under the northern sun. 
In 2006, the federal and provincial governments signed a memorandum of agreement to split the cost of cleaning up the mine — estimated at $24.6 million — evenly. Over the next nine years, the price tag ballooned to more than a quarter of a billion dollars.

About $30 million of the $77.8 million spent on the project to date has gone toward demolishing asbestos-laced buildings at the deserted mine, while the remainder has covered extensive engineering and technical studies as well as site monitoring. 
The environmental remediation manager at Saskatchewan Research Council which the province contracted to supervise the project, compared cleaning up Gunnar to picturing a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle while looking at just 10 of the pieces.

For the time being, work on the site is progressing. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has removed two “hold points,” meaning workers can begin burying 4.4 million tonnes of radioactive tailings beneath more than a metre of earth. 
Some preparatory work, including the establishment of roads to the all-but-inaccessible site, has been completed. The remediation work is expected to take four to six field seasons, wrapping up in 2022 at the latest.

It remains unclear who will foot the bill: The $268 million price tag is at the centre of a long-running dispute between the provincial and federal governments, both of which declined interview requests this week.

The provincial Ministry of the Economy, which has been fronting the cost of the work, says it is working with Natural Resources Canada — which has only advanced $1.1 million — to “equally share remediation costs as agreed to in the memorandum.”
Natural Resources Canada contends that it agreed to pay $12.3 million to Saskatchewan, which it says owns the site and is responsible for cleaning it up and that it will advance the remaining funds after final approvals to begin the work are issued. 
Several provincial and federal politicians representing northern Saskatchewan have argued that Ottawa should contribute more to the project, as it exercised a monopoly on uranium exports for the years that Gunnar was operational. 

Cameco cuts jobs at all levels

Saskatoon Star-Phoenix – Cameco Corp. says it plans to continue its cost-cutting program by eliminating a total of about 120 jobs from its McArthur River, Cigar Lake and Key Lake operations in northern Saskatchewan.

The Saskatoon-based uranium miner said the changes represent about 10 per cent of the workforce at its three major facilities in the province and that the layoffs will be complete by the end of May.
Cameco’s announcement comes less than two months after it unveiled plans to save some cash by temporarily halting production at its northern mines and mill for four weeks over the summer.

Cameco, which spent most of last year working to cut costs amid an extremely weak uranium market, said it also plans to change work schedules and air transport arrangements for its workers in the province.

The changes announced Tuesday are the latest in a long string for the company, which closed its Rabbit Lake mine at the cost of about 500 jobs and cut about per cent of its corporate workforce last year.

Uranium prices have collapsed in the years since the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi disaster. However, Cameco maintains that a recovery is on the horizon as new reactors being built around the world come online.

Wind project under way

SeeNews.com – Canadian utility Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. has found a new location for its 177-MW wind farm in Saskatchewan with the help of the local utility.

With the change, the wind park will now seek approval to be built in the Blue Hills area in the Southwest between Herbert and Neidpath, SaskPower said.

The in-service date has been moved to 2020.
Algonquin originally planned to install up to 79 turbines near Chaplin but the $355-million project was turned down by the Saskatchewan government because of potential negative impacts to birds and migratory corridors. This was the first wind project to undergo an environmental impact assessment in the province.

The new site for the 177-MW park has been selected in line with the guidelines established by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment, SaskPower noted.

Algonquin secured a 25-year power purchase agreement with SaskPower for the wind project in 2012, saying at the time that it expected to conclude construction in December 2016. The Blue Hills project will now proceed to the regulatory review permitting process.

Auction mart smart for power

CBC – An online auction method is being developed at the University of Regina that would encourage people to produce green energy.
Samira Sadaoui, a professor of computer science, is working on a method that would allow people to sell their green energy to a service provider such as SaskPower.

The idea is that during peak hours, when a power grid is seeing high use, a provider could organize an auction to buy energy from people to supplement its grid. Ideally this would avoid blackouts and put money in the pockets of residents.

The provider could buy renewable energy from a variety of sources such as wind, solar, hydro or even the energy stored in the battery of someone’s electric vehicle.

Sadaoui said John McKenzie, director of strategic development for SaskPower, approached her to develop an online auction idea to meet the province’s high power demand during peak hours.

The bidding would see the energy provider buy power from a combination of sellers in 15-minute increments to maximize the amount of energy for the lowest cost. The specifications would ideally ensure big wind farms couldn’t undercut someone looking to make some extra cash from the solar panels on their home, for instance.

New regulations and policies would need to be in place before a system such as this could be implemented, Sadaoui said. In addition, smart metres would need to be installed throughout the province. 
The auction would be held using developed software, such as an app, if it were to go ahead.

“On the consumer side, this is a very easy bidding process,” Sadaoui said.

A spokesperson for SaskPower said it is something that could be considered in the future.