CALGARY, Alberta, June 7 (Reuters) - TransAlta Corp said on Monday a unit at largest electricity generating station, the Sundance plant in Alberta, suffered a mechanical failure that will force it to run at reduced capacity for as long as two years.
The 353 megawatt Sundance 3 plant, located west of Edmonton, Alberta, will stay off line until June 20, requiring TransAlta to declare force majeure, the company said.
The incident is not expected to have a material impact on full-year net income, TransAlta said. Including the impact of the Sundance 3 unit, TransAlta expects the availability of its fleet of power plants to be 89 percent to 90 percent for the full year.
The unit is part of the 2,126 MW coal-fired Sundance plant.
The company said it is not expected to return to full service until it completes a major maintenance outage is in 2012 because of the 18-24 month lead time required to acquire new equipment.
TransAlta said it will keep receiving its power purchase agreement payment through the force majeure and will not have to pay availability penalties.
(Reporting by Jeffrey Jones; Editing by Frank McGurty) new generator stator winding. Keywords: TRANSALTA/SUNDANCE (jeff.jones@thomsonreuters.com; +1 403 531 1624; Reuters Messaging: jeff.jones.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
The 353 megawatt Sundance 3 plant, located west of Edmonton, Alberta, will stay off line until June 20, requiring TransAlta to declare force majeure, the company said.
The incident is not expected to have a material impact on full-year net income, TransAlta said. Including the impact of the Sundance 3 unit, TransAlta expects the availability of its fleet of power plants to be 89 percent to 90 percent for the full year.
The unit is part of the 2,126 MW coal-fired Sundance plant.
The company said it is not expected to return to full service until it completes a major maintenance outage is in 2012 because of the 18-24 month lead time required to acquire new equipment.
TransAlta said it will keep receiving its power purchase agreement payment through the force majeure and will not have to pay availability penalties.
(Reporting by Jeffrey Jones; Editing by Frank McGurty) new generator stator winding. Keywords: TRANSALTA/SUNDANCE (jeff.jones@thomsonreuters.com; +1 403 531 1624; Reuters Messaging: jeff.jones.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.