Melissa Leong
Toronto Star
December 20, 2002

Ontario Power Generation is partnering with Calgary-based TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. to study the viability of building a fossil-fuel power plant on Toronto’s waterfront.

The limited partnership, called Portlands Energy Centre L.P., or PEC, will immediately begin environmental and economic studies for the proposed 550 megawatt natural gas power-generation facility.

The plant would be located on part of the former R.L. Hearn Generating Station, which is owned by Ontario Power Generation, or OPG.

"The additional 550 megawatts of capacity could help improve the security and supply of electricity to meet the growing electricity needs of downtown Toronto," OPG president and chief executive officer Ron Osborne said in a statement. The province owns OPG.

Infrastructure already exists on the site, including gas lines, a discharge channel and a switch yard, TransCanada spokesperson Hejdi Feck said.

"We’d cut down on some of the environmental effects of construction."

With a local facility, there’s no need to build the power lines to deliver the power to the downtown core, she added.

Yesterday’s announcement comes more than a month after Ontario Energy Minister John Baird called for the acceleration of the assessment of the site.

Baird outlined a number of steps — including tax breaks to encourage private sector investment — to ensure the province didn’t face another summer of power shortages and skyrocketing prices.

In a news release, Baird said he was "encouraged" to see the beginning of the assessment process. The companies, which each own half of the Portlands Energy Centre partnership, said they signed a letter of intent to sell steam to Enwave District Energy Ltd.

Enwave, partly owned by the City of Toronto, provides steam heat to several downtown office buildings. The deal with PEC would allow Enwave to expand.

Tom Adams, executive director of Energy Probe, said the Enwave deal has great upside.

"By generating electricity and using the waste heat to supply heat to downtown buildings, it would translate into significant reduction to environmental emissions," Adams said.