Despite rumours circulating in the community, ATCO Electric has not yet confirmed plans to close its Jasper power plant.
“We’re nowhere near being able to say that—and that has not been decided,” Rod Carrothers, ATCO’s district manager for the South Peace district, said in an interview Aug. 8.
According to Carrothers, the company is looking into options for upgrading its facilities, but it is still in the very early stages and hasn’t made any final decisions.
“We’re at the point in the park, with the power plant and with our existing system, where in the foreseeable future we would have to make a significant investment to upgrade the facilities to ensure the supply and reliability [of electricity],” he explained.
Any improvements will come with significant costs, so last year ATCO conducted a feasibility study to explore possible options.
The study revealed several options for improving its service, and managers have narrowed it down to three possibilities—one of which is closing its Jasper plant and connecting the town to the provincial power grid.
Currently, Jasper isn’t connected, and all the electricity the town uses is produced locally. Shutting down the plant means hooking up to the provincial power grid, a move that requires an application to the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC), and overhead transmission lines strung into the park.
Another option is upgrading the plant by replacing its expensive core generating units—a process Carrothers said will cost millions of dollars. The final option is some combination of transmission lines and plant upgrades.
“We’ve looked into these three options and we’ve said, ‘you know what? There’s enough merit to each one of them that we should further investigate and see if the governing bodies would entertain them.’ And if that becomes the case then we can move forward with seeking approval for any particular one,” he said.
That is a long and involved process that could take anywhere from three to eight years.
“It’s a long assessment, and there’s many approvals and hurdles to go through to get to a decision. We don’t want any shock or surprises amongst anybody, but it’s too early to give anything definitive in our assessments,” Carrothers said.
Anna Brinker, a representative of the AUC, confirmed that the commission has not received an application from ATCO, and spokesperson Jim Law stressed that if the company does submit any requests they would go through a formal, transparent decision process that includes public consultation.
The Jasper power plant was built in 1974 to replace a previous plant that had been operating since 1942. It generates power primarily through burning natural gas, although about 15 per cent of its power is generated from its hydro dam.
Twelve people work at the plant, as well as a few operators in town. In total, ATCO employs about 15 people in Jasper.
Carrothers said all three of ATCO’s options will mean adjustments to its workforce, but said it is too early to tell what those changes will look like.
“Whichever one is decided upon will require the associated human resources. We don’t want to excite the alarm that all of a sudden people are going to lose their jobs, but on the other hand we’re not denying that [these] decisions have that influence,” he said.
Trevor Nichols
[email protected]
