Innovative Power Plant Wins ATCO Power Award

- The prestigious award -- granted annually since 1971 to the most innovative power plant in the world by the industry trade journal POWER Magazine -- was presented to ATCO Power President Gary Bauer at a ceremony yesterday in Phoenix, Arizona.

ATCO Power received the award because its Poplar Hill plant was the first of its type in the world to be fitted with a clutch mechanism that allows it to function as a conventional generation plant or to provide electrical grid stability when the gas turbine is shut down. The plant, located 120 kilometres northwest of Grande Prairie, Alberta was praised as a novel, more cost-effective solution that was quickly able to provide urgently needed generation capacity and dynamic voltage support to a booming part of the province suffering power instability and blackouts. The gas turbine power plant also features world- class fuel efficiency and dry low-NOx emissions.

"This is a demonstration of an independent power producer acting promptly and efficiently to meet Alberta's power needs," said Gary Bauer, President of ATCO Power, the Alberta leader in developing new power capacity for the province. "It is one of six plants we have built, or have under construction, in Alberta since the province started towards deregulating electricity."