According to the grid operator, the Unit 4 at the plant was shut on July 16, 2009. The Sundance power facility is situated on the south shore of Wabamun Lake, approximately 40 miles (70 km) west of Edmonton, Alberta. The plant has a total power generation capacity of 2,071MW.
The plant comprises six units, which include units 1 and 2 which became operational in 1970 and 1973 respectively with a capacity of 280MW each, Unit 3 and 5 commenced operations in 1976 and 1978 respectively with a capacity of 353MW each, Unit 4 began services in 1977 and Unit 6 in 1980 with a generating capacity of 406MW each.
TransAlta closed operations of Unit 3 at the plant on June 3, 2009, it is expected to resume its services in the third quarter. The company informed that it would close operations at Unit 5 in the third and fourth quarters. All the other units were available for service. One MW of power supplied from the plant can serve approximately 1,000 homes in Alberta.
The Sundance facility uses around 9 million tonnes of coal per year, which is mined from the TransAlta’s Highvale Mine.
According to the company’s website, TransAlta informed that it has power purchase agreements for Units 1 and 2 from January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2017, and until December 31, 2020 for the rest of the units. In addition to the above, 44MW from Unit 6 and 53MW from Unit 4 are added to the Alberta Power Pool, through the PPA Buyers.
TransAlta owns and operates approximately 8,000MW of generating capacity and sells energy commodities in the US, Canada, Australia and Mexico.
