TransAlta (TA.TO) said Aug. 30 that it has signed a new 20-year power supply contract with the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) for its Ottawa gas facility.
The prior agreement was due to expire at the end of 2013. The 20-year power agreement and supply arrangement is effective January of 2014.
A TransAlta webpage said the company owns a 50% share of the 68-MW Ottawa gas-fueled power plant. The plant, commissioned in 1992, had LM 6000 Spring gas turbine equipment installed in 2009. This is the same engine used to power 747 aircraft.
Under the new deal the plant will become dispatchable. This will assist in reducing the incidents of surplus baseload generation in the market, while maintaining the ability of the system to reliably produce energy when it is needed.
This new contract will benefit ratepayers of Ontario by securing attractively priced capacity from this existing facility, reducing the need for new capacity to be built in the future and allowing hospitals in the area to continue to be served with the steam they need for heat and other energy processes.
TransAlta is a power generation and wholesale marketing company.
