The Portlands Energy Centre was originally owned and operated as a 50/50 joint partnership between Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and TransCanada Corporation (now TC Energy).[2] OPG acquired full ownership of the facility in 2020, and it is currently operated by OPG's subsidiary Atura Power.[3]
Technical specifications of the plant
The technical specifications of the plant in the original submission of the environmental review report (a less rigorous form of a full environmental assessment) to the Ministry of the Environment in November 2003 have been significantly altered. This was due to the government instructing Ontario Power Generation to stop participating in projects which use more environmentally acceptable generations systems, such as co-generation.[4] Originally, the plant was described as two identical 275 MW power train systems, each comprising a 175 MW GE 7FA gas turbine generator, and other equipment. This proposed configuration was capable of producing over 272,000 per hour of steam for district heating.
Power purchase agreement, timing and capital costs
On September 18, 2006, TransCanada issued a press release[5] announcing that Portlands Energy Centre L.P. had signed a 20-year Accelerated Clean Energy Supply (ACES) contract with the Ontario Power Authority for the power output of the PEC.
The plant started delivering 340 MW of power to the City of Toronto in June 2008 in single-cycle operation and was fully operational with an output of 550 MW by the second-quarter 2009.[6] Total capital costs are expected to reach $730MM.
