TransAlta to build 800MW plant near Edmonton
The company, which runs coal, gas and renewable power facilities in Canada, the United States and Australia, said it taken initial steps towards regulatory approval for the proposed Sundance 7 plant, filing an interconnection application with the Alberta Electric System Operator.
The new plant will replace coal-fired facilities that the Canadian government has ordered phased out to cut the country's greenhouse gas emissions.
Dawn Farrell, the company's chief operating officer, said during an investor presentation that she expects the government will offer some compensation to coal-fired plant owners because of the planned new rule and TransAlta would use the money to build the new facility.
"TransAlta has begun preliminary engineering, design and environmental work to allow TransAlta to reinvest these recovered costs to build a state-of-the-art... natural gas power plant."
Farrell said the new plant, which would be the largest gas-fired facility owned by the company, could take advantage of infrastructure already in place at the site 70 km 43 miles west of Edmonton, where its coal-fired facilities produce 2,100 megawatts of electricity.
The cost of the planned Sundance 7 plant was not disclosed.
Related News
U.S. Electricity Sales Projections Continue to Fall
NEW YORK - Electricity producers and distributors are in an unusual business. The product they provide is available to all customers instantaneously, literally at the flip of a switch. But the large amount of equipment, both hardware and software to do this takes years to design, site and install.
From a long range planning perspective, just as important as a good engineering design is an accurate sales projections. For the US electric utility industry the most authoritative electricity demand projec-tions come from the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA). EIA's compre-hensive reports combine econometric analysis with judgment calls on…
