Power to the people.

• Author: Parish, Lynn

The RD11 project

On September 4, 1999, Edmonton Power (now known as Epcor) announced that plans were underway to repower and expand the Rossdale Generating plant with the addition of a new co-generation unit called RD11. The repowering would occur with the construction of a new high pressure pipeline from the city limits to the centre of town.

The Rossdale plant sits on the north side of the North Saskatchewan River. The plant has existed since 1891 on the Ross Flats area. It was originally set up by noteworthy residents of Edmonton to serve local industries and residences, but during the course of the twentieth century, it had expanded. By 1999, the working part of the plant consisted of three huge gas boilers and was part of the provincial power grid system. The site had expanded so that it covered most of the land originally occupied by Fort Edmonton when Edmonton had first been settled. However, just prior to 1999, all indications were that the boilers were coming to the end of their lives, and that, with the advent of the Genessee plant north of Edmonton, Rossdale would be decommissioned in the near future.

The news of an expansion, therefore, came as quite a surprise to many in Rossdale and the wider community who had been expecting the imminent demise of the plant. In September 1999, Edmonton City Council, the sole shareholder of Epcor, refused to hear from the public on a controversial motion to demolish the historic Low Pressure Plant building at Rossdale to make way for RD11. The fate of Rossdale seemed to be sealed. Against the protests of groups representing communities, historic societies, wildlife interests, native peoples and, not least, descendants of those who had lived, died, and were buried at Fort Edmonton, Epcor prepared to demolish, rebuild, and repower. A prevailing fear was that once Epcor had introduced RD11, the RD12, and RD13 projects would not be far behind.

Fast forward to November 2001: Epcor announces that the RD11 project is officially dead. How did this happen? Well, it did not happen by people chaining themselves to bulldozers, throwing eggs, or even just by writing letters to politicians (although there were some powerful visual protests- the slogan "Epcorps" being one of my particular favourites!). It came about as the result of many volunteer hours spent by various members of the public researching and using the law. Those involved became experts in the intricacies of power deregulation, power generation...