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Calgary-based TransAlta Corp., a mainstay of investor-owned power generation, on Wednesday ended 65 years of burning coal in its Canadian thermal plants by completing a fuel switch to natural gas for its Alberta network.
The company announced its 463 MW Keephills Unit 3, west of Edmonton near Wabamun, finished the historic change. The firm is down to one U.S. coal-fired generator – in Centralia, WA – and its days are numbered as the company works to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
“Our coal transition is among the most meaningful carbon emissions reduction achievements in Canadian history,” said President John Kousinioris.
“Converting to natural gas from coal maintains the current generation capacity of Keephills 3 and reduces our CO2 emissions by almost 50%, from approximately 0.86 tons/MWh to approximately 0.43 tons/MWh.”
Under a 2011 environmental cleanup agreement with the Washington regulators, TransAlta shut down one of two 670 MW Centralia coal generators a year ago. The second Washington coal-fired unit is scheduled to stop operating in 2025.
The Canadian fuel switch is set to increase natural gas use by TransAlta power stations, which already exceeds 210 MMcf/d as a result of previous fuel conversions for units with total generating capacity of 1,659 MW.
At their market domination peak in the 1980s, coal-fired generators that TransAlta began building in 1956 under its original name as Calgary Power fulfilled four-fifths of Alberta electricity requirements.
As of New Year’s Eve, the coal-era landmark was set to close.
TransAlta said its C$295 million ($236 million) Canadian gas conversion program would shut down the nation’s biggest coal strip mine, the 41-year-old Highvale pit on a 12,600-hectare (50-square-mile) site in the Wabamun region.
A Centralia mine, which began operating at the same time as the power plant in 1971, has been closed since 2006. The Washington generator has since been burning Wyoming coal from the Powder River Basin.
Reclamation is underway at both the Canadian and U.S. mines. The jumbo Alberta pit annually supplied about 8 million tons of coal to fire steam boilers for generator units at TransAlta’s Keephills and Sundance power stations.
To satisfy increasingly environmental-minded markets, as well as Alberta and federal government requirements, TransAlta has since 2018 retired 3,794 MW of coal-fired generation – or more than double the capacity preserved by converting to gas.
The firm has countered losses of coal facilities with wind, solar, hydroelectric and gas-fired power projects in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, as well as Massachusetts, Minnesota, Wyoming and Australia.
While fuel switching by legacy thermal power stations stops short of eliminating their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, TransAlta said the change enables its generating network to comply with federal and provincial environmental requirements.
The fuel conversion supports a GHG reduction goal of 60%, or 19.7 million tons versus 2015 emissions as of 2030, the company said. It also supports TransAlta’s carbon neutrality goal by 2050.
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Related topics: Coal-Fired Decarbonization electricity Emissions power generation
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