ATCO's Poplar Hill named Power Plant of the Year

May 15, 2000

Calgary, Alberta - ATCO Power has won the industry's most prestigious "Year 2000 Powerplant Award", for its innovative 45 MW natural gas fired independent power plant, located in the Grande Prairie area.

The Board of Editors of the influential 'Power' magazine in the United States says ATCO joins an elite group who have been honoured since 1971 "for their leadership in the application of advanced technology, energy efficiency, environmental solutions, and competitive management practices."

The Poplar Hill plant, built and operational in only eight months, was given the award for industry-leading innovation. Its unique ability to provide capacity when operating as a generator plus grid stability when operating as a synchronous condenser, earned Poplar Hill the Year 2000 Powerplant Award. The plant, located about 120 kilometres from Grande Prairie, was praised as a "novel, more cost-effective solution" that was quickly able to provide urgently needed generation capacity and dynamic voltage support to a booming northwestern part of the province suffering power instability and blackouts.

"The award for the most innovative plant in the world by the Board at 'Power' magazine is a tribute to our employees. These Alberta-based people have made ATCO Power an industry leader in the independent power production business" said ATCO Power President, Gary Bauer. "The innovative and cost-effective approach of the Poplar Hill plant not only delivers improved reliability to the region but results in significant savings for Alberta consumers."

Since deregulation, ATCO Power has built or has under construction with partners six independent power plants in Alberta capable of generating sufficient new electricity to power 750,000 households. They are located at Primrose, Joffre, Rainbow Lake, Scotford, and Muskeg River. ATCO Power builds, owns and operates power plants across Canada and in the United Kingdom and Australia.

The Alberta-based ATCO Group of Companies is engaged in electric power generation, transmission and distribution; natural gas gathering, processing, transmission, storage and distribution; workforce housing; industrial noise abatement and technical services and facilities management. More information about ATCO can be found on its website, www.ATCO.com.

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