CALGARY – Construction has begun on Alberta’s largest natural gas-fired power facility.
Enmax’s new natural-gas fired power generation centre is being built on a 60 acre site in the Shepard area on the east edge of Calgary.
Enmax officials along with Mayor Naheed Nenshi broke ground on the project Tuesday morning.
The $1.3-billion plant is expected to begin operating in 2015, generating as much as 800 megawatts of power to the provincial electricity grid; enough to power half of the city of Calgary.
The city-owned utility company says natural gas is where the future lies for them.
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“Natural gas is abundant in Alberta and we expect prices to stay at low levels so it will be a very competitive facility. It’s the most efficient natural gas family right now,” says Interim Enmax President and CEO Charles Ruigrok.
Natural gas produces less than half the carbon dioxide per megawatt than a conventional coal plant.
Nenshi says the project is a good use of Enmax dollars.
“We need to be able to build the generation capacity in Alberta to supply Calgarians and for Enmax to go into that business in order to secure that source of supply I believe is the right thing to do.”
Enmax says it’s still working on financial partners to help pay for the project.
Watch Enmax’s video on the project:
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