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Power plants, data centre proposed for Lacombe County

Calgary company behind multi-billion-dollar projects
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(Image contributed)

A Calgary company is eyeing Lacombe County for a pair of natural gas-fired power plants and a possible data centre.

KALiNA Distributed Power Ltd. representatives gave Lacombe County council a sneak peak at its plans for two 170-megawatt power generation plants, one in the Gilby area north of Eckville and the other in Division 4, which surrounds the City of Lacombe to the north. 

Each would cost about $1 billion to build and the data centre, which would be next to the Division 4 plant would cost about the same.

The company expects to file for the necessary regulatory approvals in the second quarter of 2025. A final investment decision and a construction start would happen in the third quarter of 2026 and the plants would be in service by fall 2029.

KALiNA Alberta general manager Bob Rosine said Lacombe County has a lot going for it as a potential power generation plant site. The county has low property taxes, an established industrial base, good transportation links, fabrication and construction services, an available workforce and a well-established municipal approval process.

The land the plants would sit on is zoned for agriculture and a rezoning application would go before the county.

Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) approval is required. If the AUC approves the project, the county must go along with that under provincial legislation.

KALiNA is an experienced power generation company and built more than 9,000 megawatts of electricity generation world-wide. The company has developed standardized natural gas-fired generation along with carbon capture and sequestration.

Electricity generated would reach the provincial grid through existing transmission lines. No new power lines would need to be built on other landowners' properties.

Carbon dioxide from the Lacombe County plants would be sequestered in provincial government-approved saline aquifers three kilometres underground.

The plants would benefit natural gas producers by giving them a major buyer and Alberta residents will benefit by the additional power added to the grid, said Rosine.

The projects are expected to be included in Alberta Electric System Operators connection project list, which is to be released on Jan. 6. The list will include the projects among the more than 100 proposals including 17,000 megawatts of new power generation that meet the regulator's criteria for potential approval.

Rosine said that for competitive reasons, the specific locations being eyed for the generation plants have not yet been released. They will become public when AESO releases its list in January and a public consultation process would follow later in the year.

County planning services director Dale Freitag told council that the planning department has been working with KALiNA for two years on its projects.

"The sites are all appropriate for consideration of this use," said Freitag.

Coun. Dana Kreil asked the company about its water requirements.

She was told the plants will be air-cooled with only a small amount of water – about 150 cubic metres a day – drawn from aquifers for plant operations.

KALiNA is also building a 44-megawatt power generation plant in Saddle Hills, Alta.

Last August,KALiNA Distributed Power's parent company, Australia's KALiNA Power Limited entered into a memorandum of understanding with an unnamed “substantial, well capitalized US-based data centre developer.” 

The company says the two parties will co-operate to deliver data centres that will rely on power projects based on natural gas, equipped with carbon capture and sequestration components to host artificial intelligence technologies. 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Paul Cowley

About the Author: Paul Cowley

Paul grew up in Brampton, Ont. and began his journalism career in 1990 at the Alaska Highway News in Fort. St. John, B.C.
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