The Pickering nuclear refurbishment is moving into its outage phase, with Ontario Power Generation expecting the generating station to leave the electricity grid next week.
OPG president and chief executive Nicolle Butcher said at the Canada Investment Summit that the plant will be out of service for five to seven years as refurbishment work begins. The station currently supplies about 10 per cent of Ontario’s electricity.
Four Pickering B units are being rebuilt
The project concerns Units 5 through 8, known as Pickering B. Ontario had extended their operation through 2026 while preparing for a full refurbishment intended to add roughly 30 years of service.
The provincial government has approved a $26.8-billion project budget. OPG and the province say Pickering’s age requires more extensive work than the recently completed Darlington refurbishment.
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is scheduled to continue a public hearing in Ajax beginning October 6. The regulator will consider operating licences for the power plant and waste-storage facility as well as the planned refurbishment.
Ontario grid will use several replacement sources
The Independent Electricity System Operator expects the province to rely on a combination of natural-gas generation, battery storage and electricity imports while Pickering is offline. The overlap with refurbishment work at Bruce Power tightens available nuclear supply, although Darlington’s four-unit refurbishment is now complete.
Other new nuclear projects, including the first small modular reactor planned at Darlington, are not expected to supply electricity before 2030. Ontario has also been procuring additional battery storage.
The shutdown is a major new stage in a project announced earlier. It does not mean the Pickering station is being permanently closed; the plan is to return the refurbished units to service in the 2030s, subject to regulatory approval and project completion.
