Portlands Energy Centre (PEC), on the waterfront in downtown Toronto, announced April 23 that construction is complete and the plant is now ready for full commercial operation weeks before the scheduled date of June 1, 2009.
“This is another great day for the Portlands Energy Centre, Ontario Power Generation, TransCanada and SNC Lavalin, and the people of Toronto. We are very proud of the many men and women who worked around the clock to complete the construction of PEC. It is on line, on budget and weeks ahead of schedule,” said Curtis Mahoney, PEC general manager.
The $730 million plant is a high efficiency 550-megawatt combined cycle natural gas-fueled electric generating facility. The plant can generate enough electricity to serve approximately 500,000 homes and will play a major role in helping to meet the electricity needs of central Toronto for many years to come.
The plant achieved single-cycle operation on schedule in time for the summer peak demand last year. The addition of combined-cycle operation was scheduled for this year’s peak summer demand. In May 2008, SNC Lavalin commissioning teams fired the turbines and synchronized PEC’s two natural gas units for the first time. The plant was partially complete and available to serve Toronto through the summer. As planned, it was taken out of service in September 2008 for completion of the steam cycle.
PEC is a limited partnership of Ontario Power Generation Inc. and TransCanada Energy Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of TransCanada Corporation. PEC was selected “Company of the Year” for 2008 by the Ontario Energy Association.