Successful performance tests by Innergex Renewable Energy at the Umbata Falls plant, in Ontario, has secured a backdated official start of commercial operation of mid November 2008, the Canadian developer has announced.
The 23MW plant has been built in partnership with the Ojibways of the Pic River First Nation, and has a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) which approved the performance tests.
Umbata Falls is expected to generate approximately 109GWh of electricity annually. Construction work on the run-of-river plant, about 30km southeast of Marathon, started in 2006. The plant is on the White river, which a tributary of Lake Superior.
The Canadian federal government is contributing Can$10 (US$) per MWh over the first 10 years of operation as an incentive payment under its ecoENERGY initiative to support renewables projects.
Innergex has a strategic goal of 300MW in net operating capacity by 2012 and the share of the project takes its portfolio to 95MW.
The Innergex Power Income Fund has a 16.1% stake in the project. Thehe Fund has separate plans with Ledcor Power Group to develop an array of run-of-river projects with installed capacity of more than 200MW.