Government of Alberta News Release

August 22, 2001
Edmonton, Alberta

Cogeneration plan will boost efficiency, power supply

A new program to encourage investment in electricity cogeneration under the Gas Plant Efficiency Assistance Regulation (GPEAR) will improve the efficiency of Albertaís natural gas processing plants and encourage development of new electricity supplies for the province.

"Cogeneration provides the potential for gas processing plants to become more efficient and reduce their costs," said Energy Minister Murray Smith. "It is also an innovative way to add new supplies to the provinceís electricity grid in a relatively short time and upgrade the efficiency of present day processing plants."

Under this program, Alberta Energy will provide a royalty credit to facility owners based on development of cost-saving cogeneration at gas plants. This is a short-term program that will be available for 36 months until April 2004.

Many gas plants burn natural gas to provide steam for their processing requirements. Through cogeneration, turbines and generators can be used to produce the electricity as well as the steam needed at the plant. Surplus electric power can be sold to the Power Pool, adding to Alberta's capacity. Up to 400 megawatts of new power could be developed during the life of the program, depending on the number of plants involved.

"Each megawatt of power produced and consumed by a cogeneration facility is one left in the Alberta power grid for use elsewhere," Smith said. "The attractiveness of the Power Pool arrangement is that there exists an easy, ready source to sell surplus power. Any surplus power sold to the grid adds to the reliability of Albertaís power supply."

Each plant will be required to demonstrate long-term cost savings in processing the Crownís royalty share of natural gas by adding cogeneration.

The Sulphur Emission Control Assistance Regulation has been amended and renamed to provide authority for the program.

For more information, please call:

Charlotte Moran - Communications Director, Alberta Energy - (780) 422-3667 - charlotte.moran@gov.ab.ca

Copyright(c); 2001 Government of Alberta