AltaGas starts up 66 megawatt McLymont Creek hydro plant
by Cleantech Canada Staff
B.C. hydroelectric facility tied-in to grid, to reach commercial operations later this year
CALGARY—Turbines have started turning at AltaGas Ltd.’s McLymont Creek run-of-river hydroelectric facility. The 66 megawatt B.C. hydro plant, which is about 1,000 kilometres northwest of Vancouver, has the capacity to power approximately 20,000 homes.
“Weather conditions coupled with civil construction challenges at the intake structure created delays in our construction schedule costing us approximately two months of lost generation. These issues are now behind us and we are now ready to start conducting final testing to achieve commercial operations,” David Harris, president and COO of AltaGas, said.
“The safe commissioning of McLymont marks the final stage in our $1 billion Northwest Projects, the most significant construction undertaking in AltaGas’ history,” he added.
The company will perform electrical and system functional checks over the next several weeks, and expects final project commercial operations to be achieved in the fourth quarter of 2015. The facility is tied-in to the province’s Northwest Transmission Line and supported by a 60-year, fully-indexed Electricity Purchase Agreement with BC Hydro.
