The early start of the irrigation season in southern Alberta, Canada is allowing independent power producer, Canadian Hydro Developers, (CHD) to start operating four seasonal hydro plants two weeks ahead of normal production schedules.
CHD’s power plants, located on Alberta’s irrigation canals, have a total installed capacity 20.85MW, of which 12.75MW is from the newly completed Taylor Coulee hydro plant scheduled to be commissioned this irrigation season. The Taylor plant is a joint venture of CHD with EPCOR Power Development Corporation.
Meanwhile, public hearings on CHD’s plan to build a 40MW run-of-river hydro plant on the Peace river in northwestern Alberta are scheduled to begin in May.