Transalta Power needs Capital efficiency

Transalta Power is an utility that generates power in Canada but much of it is in Alberta where power prices are down almost 33%.It also has a lot of traditional power generating stations that could use some updating.However Transalta has a lot of earnings;it reported $1 billion in EBITDA in 2013.Some of this will have to used to(a) make existing plants more efficient and (b) have more power generating stations outside of Alberta.
      Capital Power's method
Capital Power had a coal-fired generating station at the Genesee coal mines.It was basically a steam generating operation.They just arranged to buy new Mitsubishi J series gas turbines.These are combined with a steam heat recovery generator to make a combined cycle generating station.This is a top of the line generator and is much more efficient than the original coal-fired operation.This is the way of the future for utilities with old traditional generating methods.Transalta which has a tremenduous amount of internally generated cash must follow suit.They must adapt old structures with new generating methods in order to adjust to the existing power prices.
     Australia and beyond
   In July28,2014 Transalta  announced that it had agreed to build,own and operate  a 150 MW combined cycle gas plant in South Hedland, Australia.This at a cost of $570 million.This plant should be in commercial operation by late 2016.This will be an additional 150 MW of generated power and will increase total EBITDA for Transalta.Sometimes building from scratch is easier than modifying existing plants but this will give TA the necessary expertise with which to modify their Canadian coal  operations and some hydro operations.This is better than waiting for Alberta and Canadian power prices to come back.In  addition, Transalta Power may soon approach $1.25 to $1.40 billion in  EBITDA.