Construction is complete on the Yellowhead Power Station and the new power plant is now up and running.
The announcement was made by SaskPower in a news release earlier this month. SaskPower said the new peak load generation station came into service in December.
The 138-megawatt facility uses three General Electric LM6000 simple cycle gas turbines and is to be operated by satellite remote control from Regina. As a peak-load plant, the facility will be brought into service during those times when there is a high demand for electricity.
In a statement, SaskPower president Robert Watson said the power station will provide valuable peaking generation capacity while the company increases its wind-generating capacity.
"Wind power is an intermittent source of electricity and therefore must be supported by alternate fuel generation. The Yellowhead Power Station will play an important role as the company doubles its wind power capacity over the next few years," Watson said.
The new station increases SaskPower's generation capacity to 3982 MW. SaskPower says the plan is to add an additional 400 MW to that by 2013 to meet the growing demand for electricity. Some of that capacity, they said, is to be provided from the new North Battleford Energy Centre currently under construction to the southeast of the city.
That natural gas power plant will be operated by Northland Power under a 20-year agreement. The facility is expected to be up and running by 2013 and would provide 261 MW of baseload power.
