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Another half century of renewable power generation

E.B. Campbell, Canada

Project Story

Canada – ANDRITZ has just completed a remarkably successful project at the E.B. Campbell hydroelectric power station located on the Saskatchewan River, about 75km northeast of the town of Nipawin in Saskatchewan, Canada, with the sixth unit entering service from May 2025, reaching commercial operation on July 29th after a 60-day trial run.

In April 2017, ANDRITZ signed a contract with SaskPower for the refurbishment of six of the eight units originally commissioned from 1963-1964. The other two units were already refurbished by ANDRITZ eight years before. The goal of this life extension program was to extend by at least 50 years the reliable operation of these units. KGS was the owner’s engineer selected by SaskPower to support them on this project. The first unit refurbished reached commercial operation in July 2021. The second unit followed right after in August 2021.

ANDRITZ’s largest-ever refurbishment contract in Canada — and its most successful project in the past decade — delivered outstanding results in safety, quality, schedule, productivity, innovation, and customer satisfaction.

After that, another unit was completed each year with only a 3-month pause between the work completions on one unit and the disassembly on the next. ANDRITZ hired a significant portion of its site labor force from local First Nations communities.

The scope of work included model testing, condition assessment, design, manufacturing, delivery, installation and commissioning of new Francis runners, new complete distributor (bottom ring, wicket gates, head cover, gate operating ring and mechanism), new shaft seal, new stator frame, core and windings, many refurbished components (for example turbine shaft, thrust and guide bearings, poles, brakes), new caterpillar head gates, trash racks, hoists, refurbishment of gates and trash racks guides, instrumentation, and controls. For the last three units, new lower bracket and thrust and guide bearings were also supplied and generator shaft modified to accommodate the new design.

Model testing was completed successfully in August 2017 at our hydraulic laboratory in Canada during which we met all our performance guarantees. Engineering design activities were released following the achievement of this very crucial milestone. Procurement activities also started in fall 2017. New components were sourced globally whereas refurbished components were worked on locally. Runners, distributor components (one unit), stator frames (five units), coil windings, and gates (four units) were manufactured in ANDRITZ-owned workshops.

The new refurbished units are generating 35 MW each at a rated net head of 32 m.

On-site team of E.B. Campbell March 2025

This is the biggest refurbishment contract to date for ANDRITZ in Canada. This project has also been the most successful one in the last 10 years in terms of execution. The project excelled in safety, quality, schedule, productivity, creativity, and customer satisfaction.

ANDRITZ will continue at this power station for one more year to complete the refurbishment of the intake components for two more units — work that was not part of the original scope 15 years ago. Congratulations to the team!