The company said it would spend $1.8 billion for a 900-megawatt expansion of its coal-fired Keephills power plant, located near Edmonton.
TransAlta will also build a $310-million 248-megawatt, gas-fired power plant at its Centralia, Wash., facility, and invest $5 million in Vision Quest Windelectric Inc., to buy 40 new wind turbines that can generate electricity.
"These projects represent another major step in TransAlta's strategy to increase its generation capacity to 10,000 megawatts by 2002," said Steve Snyder, president and CEO.
TransAlta's coal- and gas-fired plants generate about 8,000 megawatts of electricity in Alberta, Ontario and the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.
On Friday, TransAlta posted a loss for the fourth-quarter due to a one-time $209-million charge related to deferred income tax liabilities. It lost about $177 million, or $1.06 per share, in the quarter, compared to a profit of $31.9 million, or 17 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.
