Brandon Generating Station is a natural gas-fired power station owned by

Manitoba Hydro The Manitoba Hydro-Electric Board (), operating as Manitoba Hydro, is the electric power and natural gas public utility, utility in the province of Manitoba, Canada. Founded in 1961, it is a provincial Crown Corporation, governed by the Manitoba ...

, located in

Brandon, Manitoba Brandon () is the second-largest city in the province of Manitoba, Canada. It is located in the southwestern corner of the province on the banks of the Assiniboine River, approximately west of the provincial capital, Winnipeg, and east of the ...

, Canada. The station was first built to burn lignite from

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

. On 1 January 2010, Unit 5, the sole coal-fired unit, was downgraded to emergency use only, per section 16 of the ''Manitoba Climate Change and Emissions Reductions Act''. Unit 5 was permitted to operate as a generator only under certain circumstances: * To prevent a situation which would lead to a disruption or destabilization of the power supply. * In drought years where demand exceeds forecasted supply. * To maintain the generator in a state of readiness and availability. The last allowance required Unit 5 to operate for 3–4 days each month at 10–15% of maximum capacity. Unit 5 stopped burning coal on August 1, 2018, and was converted to a

synchronous condenser In electrical engineering, a synchronous condenser (sometimes called a syncon, synchronous capacitor or synchronous compensator) is a DC-excited synchronous motor, whose shaft is not connected to anything but spins freely. Its purpose is not to c ...

Description

The station consists of: * 4 x 33 MW units (In 1996 three units were retired, and the last retired in 2001) * 1 x 105 MW coal-fired unit. (Added in 1970, and Converted to Synchronous Condenser operation in 2018) * 2 x 140 MW

Alstom Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...

natural gas units (installed in 2002).

References

{{Portal, Canada, Energy Natural gas-fired power stations in Manitoba Coal-fired power stations in Manitoba Buildings and structures in Brandon, Manitoba Manitoba Hydro