Ontario Construction News staff writer
PCL Construction and Overland Contracting Canada have a green light to start construction on a major new natural gas generating station in Edson, Alta.
Alberta-based Kineticor Resource Corp., along with a range of backers including Macquarie Capital, OPTrust, Axium Infrastructure and DIF Capital Partners — signed off on the $1.5 billion Cascade Power Project in August.
BPC, a joint venture between affiliates of PCL Construction and Overland Contracting Canada, Inc., a Black & Veatch Company, will construct the facility under an Engineering, Procurement and Construction Services contract with Kineticor acting as construction and asset manager.
Cascade estimates the project will create over three million work hours of construction labour – approximately 600 jobs during peak construction as well as 25 long-term jobs during operation.
Construction is expected to start immediately, at the site roughly midway between Edmonton and Jasper.
The combined cycle natural gas-fired generating facility will have capacity to produce 900 megawatts of power. Kineticor said the plant will support Alberta’s shift away from coal power, generating low emissions electricity to meet about eight per cent of the province’s power demands.
“Cascade is expected to result in one of the largest emissions reduction opportunities in the country’s electricity sector,” the company said in a news release.
Work on the new gas plant is scheduled to take about three years, with the facility sending its first power to Alberta’s grid in 2023.
Cascade is expected to be the largest and most efficient combined cycle power plant in Alberta, producing approximately 62% less CO2 equivalent per MWh than existing coal-fired generation, and at least 30% less CO2equivalent per MWh than a typical coal-to-gas conversion. Construction is anticipated to begin in Q2 2020, creating over 3 million man-hours of work, with peak onsite employment of over 500 personnel.
Once operational, power generated from Cascade will be transmitted through the Alberta power grid creating efficient, reliable and economical electricity for the benefit of present and future generations of Albertans.