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New power plant officially online

Nov 2, 2017 | 1:28 PM

 

MEDICINE HAT, AB — The city’s newest power plant is officially online.

The city celebrated the launch of Unit 16 Thursday morning, giving members of the media a tour of the facility which helps boost the amount of power the city can provide to residents.

The facility is located in the Box Springs area, near the Medicine Hat Speedway. It operates on a separate supply of natural gas, and will provide backup to the city’s current power plant.

Power is generated through the use of a LM6000 gas turbine generator purchased from General Electric, the third such unit the city has purchased since 2001. With the new plant, the city’s maximum power supply increased to 246 megawatts (MW), up from 203 MW.

The one turbine can power 14,000 homes annually.

Utilities Commissioner Cal Lenz says the facility was built with the future in mind and has extra space built in to expand.

“This site is set up so we can duplicate a unit like this right next door without additional costs being put in because we’ve already got the infrastructure in place to handle a second unit here,” said Lenz.

The project broke ground in 2016. The final cost of building the plant was $55.7 million, down from the original projected cost of $66 million.