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Construction continues at new power plant

Feb 2, 2017 | 9:40 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Construction on a new electric generation facility in Box Springs continues to remain on schedule.

The new plant, which broke ground last June, is beginning to take shape across from CF Industries, with a full slate of activity each day.

“After the June sod turning, we immediately started clearing and levelling this site,” said Ken MacKenzie, engineering manager with the city’s electric generation department. “Following that, we had contractors install concrete pilings for all the buildings and equipment.”

Once all of the concrete for the natural gas electricity plant was poured, one of the key components arrived.

Pieces for a GE LM-6000 natural gas turbine began arriving in December from Houston, with the final shipments arriving in January. The turbine arrived in 35 loads, and will use natural gas to generate electricity for city customers.

The city now has three LM-6000 units, with two of the units operating in the power plant alongside the South Saskatchewan River.

“The first one was commissioned in 2003, and they’re 43 megawatt units,” he said. “They’ve been very reliable for us. They’re the anchor units for the city, and we’re expecting this third unit to be as reliable as the first two.”

MacKenzie says the plant’s location in Box Springs is idea for them for power generation. It’s located along a natural gas line and can connect easily to an electric substation to power the city, and also isn’t at risk of going offline due to flooding.

“In the past, the power plant has experienced flooding along with the rest of the city, so we thought it would be prudent to have a unit that wasn’t in the floodplain,” he said.

MacKenzie says there has been no delays in the plant, which is slated to be operational in October.

“We have a number of commissioning and pre-commissioning steps to do before we get to that in-service date, but the schedule is being met,” he said. “We have every confidence that the October date is still good.”

The city will be posting updates on the project quarterly, with the next update scheduled for April. A timelapse video and photo gallery of the work can be viewed here.