New power plant giving a little extra
By Collin Gallant on March 15, 2018.
Medicine Hat News The City of Medicine Hat got more than it bargained for with its new north-end power plant… about one megawatt more. A notice from the Alberta Utilities Commission states the operating licence for the Unit 16 plant located on Box Springs Road has been amended to up its capacity rating to 44 megawatts. That’s about 2 per cent higher than the 43 megawatts often cited by administrators and engineers who worked on the $55-million project completed last year. Last month, power generation general manager Brian Strandlund told the News that testing and benchmarking at the facility had been completed and showed the LM6000 generator is “best in class.” With operations running smoothly, the city applied to use the remotely-controlled facility as a base load provider. It’s original licence denoted its use as a peaking facility, to be used only to meet extreme demand. This week also, the Alberta Electrical System Operator folded the new production into the City of Medicine Hat’s entry on its export board. Its new net generation total is 255-megawatts, making the city the 12th largest non-coal power-producing entity in the province. Ahead of it are six oilsands plants, two hydro dams and one wind farm. In its particular class of combined cycle gas-fired plants, Medicine Hat is third, behind the 860-MW Shepard gasplant on the eastern outskirts of Calgary and Enmax’s 320-MW Calgary Energy Centre. The highest power production ever recorded in Medicine Hat is 190 megawatts, administrators said recently. That mostly consisted of very high demand from local customers, but also 20 megawatts exported to the Alberta grid. 13-12
