U.S. firm Constellation Energy has announced plans to build a two-unit natural gas-fired plant at the former Champion Hay Processing Facility, near the crossing of Highway 582 and Rge. Rd. 42 in Mountain View County.The plant would be named the Harmattan Energy Centre and it would produce more than 1,090 megawatts. Construction would begin in spring 2013 and last six to eight months.“Just to clarify, it would be what they call a peaker plant. It does not run all the time, it runs only when demand is really high,” said Bruce Burczynski, project manager for the Harmattan Energy Centre.“It would be a simple-cycle power plant, which means that the plant can start very quickly in times of power prices going up.”According to Burczynski, the plant would hire several permanent employees, as well as create more than 100 construction jobs during the peak plant construction period.“We have not decided on staffing yet. Some of that depends on what we have to install at the plant, based on environmental regulations, which we are discussing right now, and the amount of time the plant will be running,” he said.“Is it an around-the-clock operation or just during the day? Those details of course get worked out over time.”Constellation Energy already owns a natural gas-fired power plant in Grande Prairie.“Constellation Energy as a whole does a lot of wholesale trading in Alberta,” said Burczynski.“We are looking at expanding and prices are favourable.”The plant would be connected to the AltaLink system and would get natural gas from a nearby gas line.“One of the things that we look for when we decide our plants is close proximity to electrical tie-ins and close proximity to gas tie-ins,” said Burczynski.“Of course, there are numerous gas lines in the area to tie in with.”The company plans to build the two units of the power plant in the open area of the 14-acre site. The buildings of the former Champion Hay Processing Facility will remain intact.“In the future, if economic conditions turn and people wanted to process hay, we would be open to lease those buildings to somebody,” said Burczynski.Constellation Energy believes the plant would have little impact on the area, except during the construction period, which would cause an increase in truck traffic.“During the construction, truck level will be increasing but, once again, it is a natural gas-fired plant so there is not really a lot of truck traffic into the plant, other than the several employees that will be working there,” said Burczynski.In order to answer questions from the community, the company will hold a public open house on Feb. 22 at the Zella Community Centre from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.“We understand that the community has an interest in the project. We want to get out there, explain the project, make sure that the people understand what we are trying to do and get some of their feedback,” said Kevin Thornton, communications manager for Constellation Energy.“We are clearly interested in what the community thinks about it. We want to make sure that they are OK with it and that they understand what we are trying to achieve.”
