Keephills#2 went offline at 13:00 Friday; Sundance#5 went offline at 21:01 Friday; HR Milner went offline at 06:50 andf back on at 09:44 Saturday.
Building two north-south power lines will help Atco Power’s plan to build large hydro projects on two northern Alberta rivers to replace aging coal-fired electricity plants. Old coal plants are being phased out to meet new federal greenhouse-gas regulations and the company hopes to replace them with hydro, natural gas and more cogeneration. The company has completed soil testing and other technical work on the two sites on the Athabasca River and is also looking at an 800 megawatt plant on the Slave River though the project is on hold after an area aboriginal band opposed hydro development. The company was “shocked” when hydro power was not included in the AESO’s recent forecast for electricity generation for the base load. Atco said that converting older coal plants to natural gas will still not meet current federal greenhouse-gas standards, which makes large-scale hydro projects attractive.
Industrial and commercial power consumers urged provincial regulators to let them intervene before ruling on how much Trans Alta Corp. should pay for gaming Alberta’s electricity market. The groups argued to the Alberta Utilities Commission they should be able to present evidence about the effect of the November 2010 incidents that resulted in inflated provincial electricity prices.
Direct Energy is cutting 500 jobs in Canada as the company shifts its headquarters from Toronto to Houston in order to concentrate on key growth markets in the northeastern United States and Texas. In total, Direct Energy, one of North America’s largest energy and energy-related services providers, will still have about 2,000 employees in Ontario and roughly 6,000 across North America.
