TransAlta

TransAlta Corporation (formerly Calgary Power Company, Ltd.) is an electricity power generator and wholesale marketing company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is a privately owned corporation and its shares are traded publicly. It operates 76 power plants in Canada, the United States, and Australia. TransAlta operates wind, hydro, natural gas, and coal power generation facilities. The company has been recognized for its leadership in sustainability by the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index, the FTSE4Good Index, and the Jantzi Social Index. TransAlta is Canada's largest investor-owned renewable energy provider.

TransAlta operated Canada's largest surface strip coal mine from 1970 until 2021 through its subsidiary company Sunhills Mining. The 12,600-hectare mine produced 13 million tonnes of thermal grade coal a year. The company announced that it would decommission the Highvale mine by 2021.[1]

On November 2, 2023, it was announced that TransAlta bought Heartland Generation (the third largest electricity generation company in Alberta at the time) for $658 million. The purchase means that TransAlta now controls 46% of the electricity generation market in Alberta - a development that has been criticized by numerous academics and industry officials as "a catastrophe" and likely to lead to economic withholding.[2]

Controversies

On March 21, 2014, the Alberta Market Surveillance Administrator (MSA) filed an application with the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) alleging TransAlta manipulated the price of electricity when it took outages at its Alberta coal-fired generating units in late 2010 and early 2011. While TransAlta disputed the MSA's allegations, the AUC ruled TransAlta's actions in relation to four outage events spanning 11 days in 2010 and 2011 restricted or prevented a competitive response from the associated Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) buyers and manipulated market prices away from a competitive market outcome. On Sept. 30, 2015, TransAlta and the province's MSA reached an agreement to settle all outstanding proceedings before the AUC. The settlement, which is in the form of a consent order, was approved by the AUC on Oct. 29, 2015.[8]

Under the terms of the agreement, TransAlta paid a total amount of (CDN) $56 million, including approximately $27 million as a repayment of economic benefit, approximately $4 million to cover the MSA's legal and related costs, and a $25 million administrative penalty. As part of the settlement agreement, TransAlta agreed to discontinue its court appeal of the AUC's decision concerning the four outage events.TransAlta's legal appeal came as a result of the AUC's determination in its ruling that the “MSA did not prove, on the balance of probabilities, that the company breached applicable legislation on the basis that its compliance policies, practices, and oversight thereof, were inadequate and deficient.”

In response to the dispute regarding its understanding of Alberta market rules governing forced outages, TransAlta implemented two independent, third-party reviews of its compliance procedures. The results of the reviews by McCarthy Tétrault[9] and PwC [10] were publicly released, including recommendations for improvement.

In 2015 the Alberta Utilities Commission ruled that TransAlta manipulated the price of electricity when it took outages at its Alberta coal-fired generating units in late 2010 and early 2011.[11]

In 2016, it was revealed that TransAlta gave $54,000 to University of Alberta professor Warren Kindzierski to research the health impacts of coal-fired plants near Edmonton. The study concluded that 'the high number of coal-fired power plants near the city of Edmonton doesn't negatively impact the health of local residents,' and was used by TransAlta as 'scientific backing' to push for an alternative to Alberta's then-plan to phase out coal by 2030. Between 2013 and 2015, TransAlta provided an additional $175,000 to the University of Alberta in sponsorship agreements for research and academic projects. The incident was highlighted by members of the university's Corporate Mapping Project for exemplifying the deeper issue of undisclosed corporate funding and influence in academic research in Canada.[12]

type	Public
traded as	tsx: TA nyse: TAC
foundation	1911
location	Calgary, Alberta, Canada
key people	John Kousinioris (President and CEO), John P. Dielwart (Board Chair) Appt’d April 21, 2020
industry	Power generation
products	Power Generation (8,128 MW aggregate generating capacity).
revenue	CA$2.1 billion (2020)
assets	CA$9.7 billion (2020)
num employees	1,476 (Dec. 31, 2020)
homepage	www.transalta.com

History

Ghost Reservoir

Controversies

Hydro facilities in British Columbia

Energy generation summary

Leadership

President

Chairman of the Board

See also

External links

References