Lingan Generating Station rests on the shores of the Cabot Strait, open to Indian Bay, approximately 1.6 km (0.99 mi) south-west of the headland named North Head and 0.7 km (0.43 mi) north of the headland named Little Head. Its civic address is 2599 Hinchey Avenue, Lingan, NS.
A thermal generating station, Lingan was opened by then-provincial Crown corporationNova Scotia Power Corporation on November 1, 1979 at the height of the 1970s oil crisis. It was designed to burn bituminous coal mined by the Cape Breton Development Corporation (DEVCO) at the nearby Lingan Colliery and the adjacent Phalen Colliery as a means of reducing Nova Scotia's reliance of foreign oil for electrical generation.
History
In the years following World War II, Nova Scotia, in common with many other areas of the world, turned to oil to fire its generating stations to such an extent that 70% of its electricity was then generated from oil. Formation of the OPEC cartel in 1973 brought an end to low-priced oil and the price of electricity produced from burning oil increased dramatically. Nova Scotia's solution to the international oil crisis was to exploit a provincial natural resource, coal.[1]
The plant consumes 1.5 million tonnes of coal per year and currently generates approximately twenty-five percent of the province's electricity, while producing roughly fifty percent of the province's air pollution, including hydrochloric acid, sulphuric acid, hexachlorobenzene and mercury.[6] Emissions in the form of particulates are a frequent source of pollution complaints in the neighbourhood and region.
2001 shut down of local coal mines
Until the 2001 shut down of coal production by DEVCO, Lingan was supplied almost exclusively with locally mined coal from the Sydney Coal Field. Following closure of its mines, Nova Scotia Power purchased the federal Crown corporation's surface assets, including shipping piers on Sydney Harbour and the Devco Railway which was used to haul coal to the Lingan Generating Station. Nova Scotia Power subcontracted with the Quebec Railway Corporation to operate this rail line as the Sydney Coal Railway. In order to meet emissions standards, the company now imports coal containing fewer pollutants from the United States and South America, which is hauled from the Port of Sydney by the SCR to the generating station.
Lingan Generating Station
2005 Upgrade and Scrubbers
In 2005, Nova Scotia Power announced a $100 million upgrade for the Lingan Generating Station, including the installation of a scrubber for flue gas desulphurization (FGD) and low nitrogen oxide burners. The ‘Low-NOx’ combustion systems help prevent the creation of nitrogen oxides with a resulting reduction in NOx emissions of about 40 per cent.[7] The scrubbers were installed from 2006 to 2008 on all four units.[8] At the same time, activated carbon injection was added to all the units to remove mercury from flue gas.[4]
2015 renovations
In 2015 Nova Scotia Power spent $15 million to give one of its four coal fired generators a major overhaul. The work involved completely tearing apart the turbine and the generator and then refurbishing and replacing numerous components as part of regular maintenance. Regularly about 120 people work at the Lingan power plant. About 130 additional workers were hired to help with the upgrades, with about 50 of those workers outside contractors.[9]
1994 Near collision
On April 14, 1994, a courier flight originating from Moncton and destined for Sydney Airport had a near collision event with the power plant. Witnesses reported that the plane had nearly struck the building on its approach to the airport. An investigation into the incidence later confirmed that the plane had dropped to 140 feet agl and came within 50 feet of the structure while traveling at over 300 mph.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) determined that the crew did not properly plan and fly their approach to the Sydney Airport, which resulted in a near collision with the Lingan power generating plant. Contributing factors to this occurrence were the flight crew's complacent attitude, their loss of situational awareness, their decision to continue an unstabilized approach, and the controller's lack of compliance with the radar vectoring procedures outlined in the Air Traffic Control (ATC) Manual of Operations (MANOPS).[10]
2012 Reduced operation and conversion
Since 2012, the utility has been shutting down two of Lingan's generators during the summer months, due to lower residential and industrial demand, increased renewable energy use and to meet environmental requirements. Nova Scotia Power is also looking at converting the generating station to use heavy fuel oil after the current generators are closed in 2030.[11]
^ abKee, Fred. "Electric Utilities across Canada"(PDF). IEEE Canada. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Canada. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
^ abErin Flanagan; Benjamin Israël (November 2016). "Out with the coal, in with the new"(PDF). Metcalf Foundation. The Pembina Institute. p. 5. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
