Bruce Power Press Release:

TIVERTON, ON – Aug. 29, 2007 – Bruce Power and the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) have amended their existing Bruce A agreement to allow for the complete refurbishment of Unit 4.

Bruce Power will now replace all 480 fuel channels in Unit 4, extending its operational life until 2036. Under the original 2005 agreement, Bruce Power intended to install new steam generators in all four Bruce A units and fuel channels in Units 1, 2 and 3. Without new fuel channels, Unit 4 was only expected to run until 2017.

Under the revised plan, Bruce Power expects to invest an additional $1 billion, resulting in a total investment in the restart and refurbishment program of approximately $5.25 billion.

“Expanding our project will allow us to conduct the complete refurbishment of Units 3 and 4 in a similar manner to how we are conducting the restart of Units 1 and 2,” said Duncan Hawthorne, Bruce Power’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “We are well into one of North America’s most complex engineering projects and we remain on time and on budget. Our team of contractors is well established at Bruce A and their processes are working well.”

Bruce Power expects to complete the work on Units 3 and 4 by 2013. Under the revised agreement, the OPA can elect for a three unit restart program if it expects there will be insufficient transmission to accommodate all eight Bruce Power units by mid 2013. This election expires on April 1, 2008. In April, Hydro One announced plans to upgrade the transmission line between Bruce Power and Milton, Ont. and expects the new line to be in service by 2012.

Meanwhile, work to restart Units 1 and 2 continues and is expected to deliver an additional 1,500 megawatts to the Ontario power grid by late 2009 or early 2010. For stories and video clips on the entire project, please check out our Bruce A Restart web pages at www.brucepower.com.

For further information, please contact:
Steve Cannon 519-361-6559 steve.cannon@brucepower.com
Duty Media Officer 519-361-6161

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I'm no expert on power generation, but a buddy of mine works at Bruce Power and they apparently have sizeable plans to increase their output in the near future. I'm not sure how challenging it will be to get power from Bruce to the North, but if there were power plants to the North that would have capacity freed-up once the 1-2 units are on-line at Bruce that power could be used more locally maybe?

Just thinking out loud...