TransCanada eyes Alberta hydro project

subscribe

TransCanada Corp is mulling development of a $5 billion hydroelectric project on the Slave River in the remote reaches of northern Alberta, Alex Pourbaix, president of the power and pipeline company's energy division, said.

The company said it is in the early stages of planning for a run-of-the river hydro project on the Slave, an undeveloped river that carries more that two-thirds of Alberta's water flow north to Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories.

The project, which would not include a large reservoir behind a dam, would likely generate 1,200 to 1,300 megawatts of electricity, and could be operating in a decade.

"We are in what I would call an early-stage feasibility exercise," Pourbaix said. "We've done a fair bit of work on the technical aspects and are now starting to engage with stakeholders."

TransCanada's partner on the project is a unit of Atco Ltd., which owns generating plants in Canada, Britain and Australia.

Power from the project would be sold in Alberta as well as in export markets, Pourbaix said. However it would require significant additions to the province's electricity transmission network, which already lacks capacity to send power from the province's northern reaches to the more developed southern areas.

The project "will require significant transmission upgrades and, likely, better interconnections of the Alberta power market with markets to the south of us," Pourbaix said.

TransCanada is the country's biggest pipeline company. It also owns electricity operations in Canada and the United States. As well, the company is a partner in Bruce Power LP, which operates the Bruce nuclear facility in Ontario, which supplies a fifth of the province's power.

Related News

coal pile

New England Emergency fuel stock to cost millions

CONCORD - Electricity ratepayers in New England will pay tens of millions of dollars to fossil fuel and nuclear power plants later this decade under a program that proponents say is needed to keep the lights on during severe winters but which critics call a subsidy with little benefit to consumers or the grid.

Last week the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said ISO-New England, which runs the six-state power grid, can create what it calls the Inventoried Energy Program or IEP. This basically will pay certain power plants to stockpile of fuel for use in emergencies during two upcoming winters as…

READ MORE
cyprus map

Cyprus can’t delay joining the electricity highway

READ MORE

aps logo

APS asks customers to conserve energy after recent blackouts in California

READ MORE

inflation-climate-change-clean-energy-challenges

Rising Electricity Prices: Inflation, Climate Change, and Clean Energy Challenges

READ MORE

clary power lines

Electricity alert ends after Alberta forced to rely on reserves to run grid

READ MORE