Generation
Natural gas-fuelled
Through subsidiaries, ENMAX Energy Corporation owns the Crossfield Energy Centre just southeast of the Town of Crossfield, the Calgary Energy Centre on the northern boundary of the City of Calgary and the Cavalier Energy Centre east of the Town of Strathmore, Alberta. Through joint ventures, ENMAX Energy co-owns the Shepard Energy Centre in southeast Calgary and the Balzac Facility in Balzac, Alberta.
We’re thinking big to provide power for a better tomorrow: the Shepard Energy Centre generation facility built in southeast Calgary provides enough electricity for about half of Calgary's current energy requirements.
More efficient generation
Combined-cycle technology is currently in use at the Calgary Energy Centre and the Balzac Facility. It is also the technology that will be used at the Shepard Energy Centre.
In these types of generating facilities, power is produced initially through the burning of natural gas in a combustion turbine. Waste heat from the turbine exhaust is harnessed to produce steam, which is then used to generate additional electricity, significantly improving the facility’s energy efficiency. The use of this technology increases the input energy efficiency by about 30 per cent over a state-of-the-art supercritical coal plant.
Calgary Energy Centre
Built in 2002 and acquired by ENMAX in 2008, the Calgary Energy Centre is a 330 MW natural gas–fuelled one on one combined cycle generation facility on the northern boundary of the City of Calgary.
In a combined cycle power plant, natural gas first fuels a gas turbine that produces both electricity and exhaust heat. The exhaust heat is then routed through a boiler to produce steam that is used to drive a steam turbine to produce additional electricity and significantly improve the overall thermal efficiency of the power plant. ENMAX uses combined cycle technology at the Calgary Energy Centre, the Shepard Energy Centre, and the Cavalier Energy Centre to provide efficient, low emitting, economic, and reliable power to Alberta’s electrical grid.
Cavalier Energy Centre and Balzac Facility
Cavalier Energy Centre
Acquired in 2014 by ENMAX Energy Corporation through its subsidiaries, the Cavalier Energy Centre is a 120 megawatt (MW) natural gas-fuelled facility, located near Strathmore, Alberta. ENMAX Energy is the operator of this facility.
Balzac facility
ENMAX Energy through its subsidiaries owns a 50 per cent interest in a 120 MW gas-fuelled plant in Balzac, Alberta, which it jointly owns with CNOOC Ltd. CNOOC is the operator of the Balzac facility.
Crossfield Energy Centre
Built in 2009, the Crossfield Energy Centre is a 144-megawatt natural gas-fuelled facility, consisting of three natural gas turbines.
Crossfield is a peaking facility, meaning it's capable of coming online quickly to provide power to the grid when there's an unexpected drop in supply or increase in demand. Crossfield is designed to provide power to Alberta's electrical grid within 10 minutes of being commanded, ensuring there is enough supply to meet customer demand.
In 2021, ENMAX Energy combined a new 10 MW/4.3 MWh lithium-ion battery with an existing natural gas turbine to create Canada's first hybrid electric gas turbine facility. This unique technology enables the facility to provide standby electricity without burning fuel, significantly lowering emissions.
Through advancements like Canada's first hybrid electric gas turbine, ENMAX Energy will continue to take a leadership role in building Alberta's low carbon power system of the future. Partially funded by Emissions Reductions Alberta as part of their Industrial Efficiency Challenge, this hybrid approach will avoid an estimated 45,000 tonnes of GHG emissions annually, the equivalent of removing 10,000 cars from the road.
Canada's first hybrid electric gas turbine
How it works
Shepard Energy Centre
Located on a 60-acre site east of Calgary, the Shepard Energy Centre is Alberta's largest natural gas-fuelled power generating facility. Using combined-cycle technology, two natural gas-fuelled turbines and one steam turbine provide more than 860 megawatts (MW) of electricity to the provincial grid - enough to meet almost half of Calgary's current needs.
Shepard uses reclaimed water from the City of Calgary's Bonnybrook Wastewater Treatment Plant for its process requirements and emits less than half the carbon dioxide per MW of conventional coal plants.
Capital Power owns a 50 per cent interest in the Shepard Energy Centre through a joint venture agreement with ENMAX Energy Corporation, the facility operator.
Shepard Energy Centre tour
NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE
Generating even greater innovation
The Shepard Energy Centre is already showing how innovation can lead to more, effective, efficient and environmentally friendly ways to generate electricity.
Now thanks to NRG and Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance’s (COSIA) Carbon XPRIZE, it has become home to leading research into how CO2 emissions can be converted into other useful products.
Waste doesn't need to be wasted
The natural gas-fuelled Shepard Energy Centre emits less than half the carbon dioxide per megawatt of conventional coal plants. And while that’s great, research supported by the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE is going to use CO2 created by generating electricity to unlock innovation that will lead to new, valuable uses for carbon emissions.