Technical Paper: Outsourced Water Treatment Plant For Boiler Make-Up Water

Ontario Power Generation's Pickering Nuclear Generating Station (PNGS) is an eight-unit nuclear station located near the shore of Lake Ontario, in the City of Pickering, Ontario, Canada. The original set of four (A-side) units were placed in commercial service in the early 1970's, the second set of four units (B-side) were placed in commercial service in the mid-1980's. The generating units are rated at a Net Electrical Output of 515 MW each.

The original PNGS's water treatment plant (WTP) was based on conventional water treatment process technology and included clarification, sand filtration, activated carbon and ion exchange. The original water treatment plant was aging, required a high degree of maintenance, and was limited in its ability to produce demineralized water of sufficiently high quality. In 1999, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) conducted a study of the available alternatives, and decided to build a new outsourced WTP. This was OPG's first experience at contracting out WTP operation.

OPG awarded a 10-year build, own, operate, and maintain WTP contract to a team consisting of a Prime Contractor and Eco-Tec Inc (hereafter referred to as the O&M Company/Team). OPG supplied the building; the Prime Contractor owns the WTP equipment, and Eco-Tec Inc., a local, Pickering-based company, supplied the equipment and is operating the WTP under contract to the Prime Contractor. The new WTP was designed, built, installed and commissioned in eight (8) months, and was available for service in October 2001. The following aspects of the WTP project will be discussed in this paper:

• Site selection
• Inlet water characteristics
• Demineralized water specifications
• WTP process description
• Plant waste management
• System automation and monitoring
• Operating experience
• Summary – Positive Experiences/Lessons Learned