Owners: EPCOR & TransAlta
Rating: 495 MW (gross)
Location: Alberta, Canada
Contract: Total Contract Value: $450 Million
Genesee 3 (G3), a 450 megawatt (MW) generating facility, the most advanced coal-fired plant ever built in Canada. G3 went into Commercial operation: March 1, 2005.
G3 is Canada's first generation facility using a supercritical pressure boiler. In a supercritical boiler, higher temperatures and steam pressures-together with a high efficiency steam turbine-create a more efficient process for converting thermal energy into electricity. The process uses less coal per megawatt hour of electrical energy than the conventional subcritical process, thereby reducing emissions.
G3 is the largest single generation unit ever added to Alberta's power grid, and its construction site was one of the largest and busiest in Alberta. At peak construction, 2,100 people worked on the project. Over the 36 month construction period, 42 different contractors and 16 unions worked together and achieved an outstanding safety record. In September 2004, G3 marked two million person-hours of work without a lost time injury.