There are plans to breathe new life into the former Lambton Generating Station (LGS) site in St. Clair Township.
During its regular meeting on Tuesday, township council was told Altura Power, a subsidiary of Ontario Power Generation (OPG), has plans to construct a 500 megawatt natural gas power plant at the Courtright site.
Senior Manager of Business Development Chris Penny said the site offers several benefits for the proposed Riverside Generating Station, including access to reliable and low-cost natural gas.
"We really see this as a really good, strong, exciting opportunity to support repowering of the site," said Penny.
He said the proposed power plant will help meet growing demand in the future.
"The Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) projected demand to increase, 75 per cent more than what we have now, we're going to need by 2050," said Penny. "We're going to need new stations to produce the electricity that we're going to need."
LGS closed its four coal-fired units in 2013 and demolition of the buildings and smokestacks was completed in 2022. The 1,200 acre site in Courtright is currently zoned for generation.
Penny said the new facility would be built on between 20 to 40 acres of the site.
"The facility would be equipped with state-of-the-art gas-turbine technology designed really to complement renewable energy sources," he said. "Which means, flexibly operating, being able to ramp-up and down firming and providing some reliability services to help stabilize the provincial grid."
If the project is approved by St. Clair Township and the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), construction could begin as early as the summer of 2027.
It's unclear at this time how many permanent jobs would be created.
A public information session about the project will be held on Thursday, June 19 at the St. Clair Parkway Golf Course from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.