As of June 2026, the Milner M2 natural gas plant near Grande Cache, Alberta, the roughly 204 megawatt facility that Maxim Power Corp. first brought online in 2020, has finished the combined cycle upgrade that was only an option when the project was first reported. Maxim commissioned the combined cycle gas turbine expansion in late 2023, lifting the maximum capacity of the H.R. Milner site to 300 megawatts. The work captured waste heat the plant had previously released and turned it into extra dispatchable power for the Alberta grid. With that step, the long running effort to convert the old coal station at Milner into a modern gas plant was complete, and the site moved from a single simple cycle unit to a fuller combined cycle operation feeding the provincial market.
Coal to Gas Repower Reaches 300 MW After More Than $300 Million
The upgrade marked the end of a repower that, across all of its phases, drew more than $300 million of investment and turned a legacy 150 megawatt coal burning facility into a 300 megawatt combined cycle plant. The expansion itself carried an estimated final cost of about $164 million, before borrowing costs and after roughly $20 million in grant proceeds, financed through a senior secured credit facility from ATB Financial and Fiera Private Debt. Maxim says the rebuilt plant cuts the intensity of its carbon emissions by more than 60 percent against the old coal station. The path was not entirely smooth. A fire that caused no injuries struck the M2 facility in September 2022, damaging an air intake structure and pushing the expansion’s finish from a 2022 target into late 2023.
What the Milner Repower Says About Alberta and Canadian Gas
The Milner project is a small but telling piece of Alberta’s wider shift off coal. Over the past decade the province has retired or converted its coal fleet, leaning on natural gas to keep dispatchable capacity on the grid, and repowering existing sites like Milner has been one of the faster routes to do it. The picture looks different elsewhere in the country, where gas is increasingly aimed at export rather than domestic power. On the British Columbia coast, developers have proposed the US$15.7 billion Kanata LNG floating project near Prince Rupert, which would ship up to 12 million tonnes of liquefied gas a year to Asia. Together the two illustrate the same resource serving very different ends, one firming up a provincial grid, the other chasing overseas demand.
Maxim Power Eyes More Alberta Generation After Milner M2
With the repower behind it, Maxim Power has positioned the 300 megawatt Milner plant as the core of its portfolio, selling the output to the Alberta Electric System Operator. The Calgary based company, which trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol MXG and calls itself one of Canada’s largest independent power producers, has said it is now focused entirely on Alberta. Its next steps include advancing other generation it has already permitted around the Milner site, where regulators have cleared roughly 346 megawatts of additional gas fired capacity, alongside the permitting of a wind power project. No construction dates have been set for those further developments, which leaves the completed Milner combined cycle plant as the company’s principal operating asset for now.
Project Overview
- Project Name: H.R. Milner Generating Station, known as Milner M2
- Location: Near Grande Cache, Greenview, Alberta, Canada
- Developer / Owner: Maxim Power Corp. (TSX: MXG), based in Calgary
- Total Cost / Value: More than $300 million across the full coal to gas repower, with the combined cycle expansion costing about $164 million
- Scale / Capacity: 300 megawatt combined cycle gas plant, up from the 204 megawatt simple cycle unit commissioned in 2020
- Construction Start: 2019 for the M2 project
- Expected Completion: Combined cycle expansion fully commissioned in late 2023
- Funding / Financing: Debt, cash and operating cash flow, with a senior secured credit facility arranged by ATB Financial and Fiera Private Debt, plus about $20 million in grant proceeds
- Current Status: Operating and selling power to the Alberta Electric System Operator
- Key Milestone: October 2023 commissioning of the M2 combined cycle expansion, completing the coal to gas conversion of the site
Project Team
- Maxim Power Corp.: Developer, owner and operator of the plant
- BPC Milner: Engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the M2 project
- PCL Construction: Engineering and construction joint venture partner within BPC Milner
- Black & Veatch: Engineering and construction joint venture partner within BPC Milner
- ATB Financial: Arranger of the senior secured credit facility
- Fiera Private Debt: Arranger of the senior secured credit facility
- Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO): Buyer of the plant’s power
- Government of Alberta: Policy support through the TIER program, per Maxim Power
Reported 8th June 2020: A 204Mw natural gas-fired power plant in Alberta located near Grande Cache has started generating power to the Alberta power grid recently during commissioning.
During the final construction phase, the facility has successfully demonstrated its maximum generating capacity and environmental compliance.
Despite challenging construction conditions due to weather and COVID-19, the firm has completed the construction and commissioning of the M2.
In August last year, Maxim Power signed an engineering, procurement and
construction (EPC) contract with BPC Milner for the M2 project.
BPC Milner is a joint venture between affiliates of PCL Construction and Black & Veatch.
Maxim Power said: “This project represents an industry leading 16 month construction duration and 21 month total project horizon (from equipment procurement to project completion).
“The M2 project is a testament to the Government of Alberta’s ongoing commitment to promote economic development by creating a stable and attractive investment climate.
“The government’s work to ensure federal carbon policy does not inhibit investment and its introduction of the made-in-Alberta TIER program is important to this project and to MAXIM’s significant commitment to investing in Alberta’s power infrastructure.”
The firm said that the natural gas-fired power plant in Alberta is a significant milestone in the province’s transition away from coal-fired generation.
During the construction phase, the project has created over 120 jobs and is now expected to provide on-going employment and support of local businesses in the Grande Cache area of Alberta.
Furthermore, the MAXIM is moving forward its option to increase the capacity of facility to about 300MW and reduce its operating costs significantly by investing capital in heat recovery technology, which allows the facility to operate in combined cycle mode.
The natural gas-fired power plant in Alberta has demonstrated its maximum generating capacity and environmental compliance at the time of its final construction phase.
Based in Calgary, Alberta, MAXIM is one of Canada’s largest truly independent power producers. MAXIM is now focussed entirely on power projects in Alberta. Its core asset – the 204 MW H.R. Milner Plant in Grande Cache, AB – is a state-of-the-art natural gas-fired power plant that commissioned in Q2, 2020.
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