Canal Generating Plant

Canal Generating Plant
Country	United States
Location	Sandwich, Massachusetts
Coordinates	41°46′14.02″N 70°30′33.81″W
Status	Operational
Commission date	1968
Owner	Ironclad Energy
Thermal power station
Primary fuel	Oil
Power generation
Nameplate capacity	1,226 MW

The Canal Generating Plant is a petroleum and natural gas electrical power station in Sandwich, Massachusetts. Canal 1, a baseload unit, began operation in 1968 and was for many years the most efficient oil burning plant in the US. Canal 2, a cycling unit began operation in the mid-1970s. The plant was bought by Mirant in 1999, now GenOn Energy Holdings division of NRG Energy. It is located on Cape Cod Canal. In its heyday, the Canal plant generated the vast majority of the Cape's power, but today functions only as a peaking plant.

In an attempt to modernize the plant, the owners constructed a 330-megawatt Simple cycle natural gas plant capable of going online within 10 minutes, and a 1.5 MW solar array on the property. The third unit has the ability to run on #2 oil during cold periods in the winter when natural gas pipelines are constrained.

In 2018 it was sold to private equity firm Ironclad Energy, a subsidiary of Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners.

External links

• Mirant plant's future on the line (October 2010)
• Cape Cod Commission decision to permit storage of aqueous ammonia on site (February 2005)
• EPA draft decision regarding discharge of cooling water into Cape Cod Canal (2009)