TransAlta Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
TransAlta (TSX:TA) reported third-quarter financial results on Tuesday. The transcript from the company’s third-quarter earnings call has been provided below.
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Summary
TransAlta Corporation reported strong Q3 2026 financial performance with adjusted EBITDA of $264 million and free cash flow of $93 million.
The company finalized the acquisition of two natural gas-fired facilities in Colorado for US $1 billion, expected to generate $110 million in adjusted EBITDA annually.
TransAlta closed the sale of a 49% interest in its Oklahoma wind portfolio for $305 million, strengthening its balance sheet.
Progress continues on the Centralia conversion to natural gas and the Alberta data center projects, with key permitting and collaboration steps underway.
The company remains confident in meeting its 2026 guidance, supported by a strong hedge book and strategic asset optimization.
Management emphasized ongoing efforts in asset recycling to maintain financial flexibility and pursue growth opportunities.
The Boreal Technology Hub project is advancing, with plans to provide up to 1.6 gigawatts of electrical load, leveraging underutilized generation.
TransAlta is mothballing the Battle River units to maintain long-term optionality while focusing on higher capacity operations at other sites.
Full Transcript
Andrew (Operator)
Good morning. My name is Andrew and I’ll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the TransAlta Corporation Third Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star 11 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star 11 again.
Thank you, Ms. Paris. You may begin your conference.
Stephanie Paris (Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Strategy)
Thank you, Andrew. Good morning, everyone. My name is Stephanie Paris and I am the Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Strategy at TransAlta. Welcome to TransAlta’s third quarter 2026 conference call. With me today are Joel Hunter, President and Chief Executive Officer; Mike Politeski, Executive Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer; and Chris Fralick, Executive Vice President, Generation and Chief Operating Officer. Today’s call is being webcast, and I invite those listening on the phone lines to view the supporting slides that are posted on our website.
A replay of the call will be made available later today and the transcript will be posted to our website shortly thereafter. All the information provided during this conference call is subject to the forward-looking statement qualifications set out here on slide 2, detailed further in our MD&A and incorporated in full for the purposes of today’s call. All amounts referenced are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted. The non-IFRS terminology used, including adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow, are reconciled in the MD&A. For your reference on today’s call, Joel and Mike will provide an overview of TransAlta’s quarterly results.
After these remarks, we will open the call for questions. With that, I will turn the call over to Joel.
Joel Hunter (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks, Stephanie. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our third quarter conference call. TransAlta delivered strong third quarter operational and financial performance, demonstrating our fleet’s ability to continue to deliver results during challenging market conditions. Our Alberta portfolio hedging strategy and active asset optimization continue to generate realized prices well above spot prices. While availability remained high across our diversified fleet during the quarter, we delivered adjusted EBITDA of $264 million, free cash flow of $93 million, or $0.29 per share, and average fleet availability of 92.6%.
Due to our strong performance year to date and expectations, we remain confident in achieving our 2026 guidance range, which Mike will cover in more detail. In October, we closed the acquisition of two natural gas-fired peaking facilities in Colorado for US $1 billion, which collectively will provide approximately $110 million of low-risk, high-quality adjusted EBITDA per year. These operating assets totaling 318 megawatts add immediate stable cash flow that can be redeployed into our most compelling growth initiatives, including the Centralia conversion and Alberta data center projects. We also closed the sale of a 49% interest in our 502 megawatt Oklahoma wind portfolio to Ares Infrastructure Funds for $305 million.
This transaction monetizes a portion of our investment in a non-core geography while retaining operational control. We look forward to partnering with Ares and leveraging our combined strengths to enhance the value of the assets. Proceeds from the sale will strengthen our balance sheet and support our accretive growth opportunities as large load growth, electrification, and onshoring increase power demand across our core geographies. Progress continues with the conversion of Centralia to natural gas. We expect to receive our environmental permits by year end, and we continue to advance towards a final investment decision next year. In September, the U.S. Department of Energy issued its fourth order under Section 202 requiring Centralia Unit 2 to remain available for operation for an additional 90 days. We continue to comply with the directive and remain confident in our ability to recover our associated costs.
Yesterday, we notified the AESO that we will be mothballing our Battle River units and extending the Sundance 6 mothball outage. Doing so maintains the long-term optionality of the units while optimizing our Alberta portfolio. In the near term, we retain the flexibility to return the assets to service along with Sheerness 1 when market fundamentals strengthen, particularly as data center load develops across the province. Our remaining Alberta fleet will operate at higher capacity factors to support our hedging strategy, provide reliability, and capture value during higher-priced hours.
And finally, together with our partners Brookfield, CPP Investments, and BGRE, we continue to make meaningful progress on the Keephills Data Center project, now known as the Boreal Technology Hub. On October 7, the Boreal team hosted a community open house, welcoming local stakeholders and other interested parties to learn about the project, ask questions, and share feedback. Boreal is located directly south of our Keephills generating facilities, where we are the exclusive land and power provider.
At full build-out, Boreal is currently anticipated to provide up to 1.6 gigawatts of electrical load. Power will be provided from our initial 230 megawatt grid allocation, capacity from our underutilized gas-fired steam fleet, and longer term potentially from the Sundance 5 and Keephills 1 redevelopment projects. I’m pleased to share we received AUC approval for the Keephills 1 project in October. We continue to make meaningful progress with the AESO on a solution to serve data center load from our underutilized generation, including our mothballed units.
Our gas-fired steam units are designed to operate as baseload generation at capacity factors greater than 90%. Using underutilized generation will help serve new load while continuing to provide affordable and critical reliability to Alberta’s electricity system. The Boreal project is currently pursuing their master site development permits, which is the next major milestone ahead of construction. Commencing this project is a significant opportunity for TransAlta, partners, Alberta, and the local community and will establish one of Canada’s largest AI and digital infrastructure hubs.
I’ll now turn the call over to Mike to talk more about our third quarter financial performance.
Mike Politeski (Executive Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer)
Thanks, Joel, and good morning, everyone. During the quarter, we generated adjusted EBITDA of $264 million, a strong outcome given the soft price environment in Alberta. Our Hydro segment adjusted EBITDA reflected the optimization of hedge positions and higher intercompany sales of emissions credits. Our Wind and Solar segment reported increased adjusted EBITDA as higher wind resource across all regions provided additional upside. Within our Gas segment, adjusted EBITDA was $29 million higher due to the continued strong optimization of our Alberta fleet, realization of emissions credits, and positive contributions from our facilities in Eastern Canada. Energy Marketing performed well in the third quarter, up $13 million year over year, reflecting strong performance from our trading desks across U.S. power and natural gas markets. In our Corporate segment, we continue to control our costs, which were 20% lower than the prior year.
And finally, our Energy Transition segment reflects the cessation of coal-fired generation at Centralia at the end of 2025. As Joel previously mentioned, we continue to comply with Section 202 orders received from the DOE. Our renewable assets provided considerable environmental offsetting to our gas fleet’s 2026 year-to-date carbon compliance obligation, resulting in a $51 million reduction in our carbon obligation during the quarter, reflecting the value of our diversified fleet in Alberta. Going forward, we expect the realization of emissions credits to better match our carbon compliance costs in the period incurred, which should provide a clearer view of the quarterly performance of each segment.
Finally, we also generated strong free cash flow during the quarter totaling $93 million. Year to date, our sustaining capital expenditures are down $22 million. However, we expect higher maintenance capital in the fourth quarter, keeping our aggregate sustaining capital within the previously guided $140 to $160 million range. Turning to the Alberta portfolio, spot prices averaged approximately $36 in the third quarter, down from $51 in the third quarter of 2025. The decline was primarily due to continued strong supply, mild weather, and relatively limited periods of market tightness. We enhanced our margins by fulfilling portions of our higher-priced hedge commitments through power purchases and monetization of positions when market prices were below our variable production costs.
We benefited from approximately 2,500 gigawatt hours of hedges at an average price of $65, which represented a $28 premium to the average spot price. Our gas fleet realized an average merchant price of $55, which was a 53% premium to the average spot price, largely due to our dispatch optimization during high-priced hours. Our Hydro fleet also continued to capture merchant upside, delivering an average realized price of $43, a 19% premium to the average spot price.
Our merchant wind fleet realized an average price of $19, reflecting increased thermal production in the market and the timing of intermittent wind and solar generation. During the quarter, we also delivered approximately 2,800 gigawatt hours of ancillary service volumes at an 11% premium to the average spot price. Through effective fleet optimization and meeting hedge obligations with purchased power, we consistently address the AESO’s need for reliability products.
We continue to have a strong hedge book to support our Alberta business for the balance of the year. We have approximately 2,100 GWh of our Alberta generation hedged at an average price of $67, significantly above current forward pricing. Looking ahead to 2027, we have approximately 6,700 GWh hedged at an average price of $65, also well above current forward levels. We will continue to opportunistically manage our hedge position to ensure we protect our cash flows while capturing upside as market conditions evolve.
Our gas-fired steam units continue to operate well below their potential and have the ability to run at significantly higher capacity factors as higher-priced hours emerge. That flexibility allows us to increase our generation and capture additional value. Our fleet decisions position us well for the current pricing environment while preserving meaningful upside as market fundamentals improve. Our focus remains on optimizing the portfolio today while maintaining the flexibility to capture growth longer term.
Turning to our financial position, we remain focused on strengthening our balance sheet and maintaining our financial flexibility. Asset recycling continues to be an important lever, as demonstrated by the recent sale of a minority interest in our Oklahoma wind portfolio. Longer term, improving Alberta power prices, potential contracting of underutilized generation, and the expected cash flows from Centralia post conversion will provide cash flow growth to further strengthen our financial position.
We are well positioned to meet our 2026 guidance; contracted fleet, strong hedge position, and consistent optimization provide us with core cash flows even in a low merchant power pricing environment. The net effect of the Colorado acquisition and Oklahoma disposition has a relatively modest impact to 2026, further contributing to the reaffirmation of our guidance. With that, I will turn the call back over to Joel.
Joel Hunter (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks, Mike. As we move through the balance of the year, our priorities remain clear and our focus remains firmly on execution, specifically improving our leading and lagging safety performance indicators while achieving strong fleet availability. Delivering adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow within our 2026 guidance ranges. Maximizing the value of our legacy thermal sites by advancing our Alberta data center strategy as well as our coal-to-gas conversion at Centralia.
Pursuing strategic M&A opportunities where we see a compelling fit within our portfolio and enhancing our financial strength and flexibility. Disciplined capital allocation and cost control. I believe TransAlta offers a compelling investment opportunity built on the strength of the business we have today and the significant opportunities we see ahead. We have operated a safe and reliable power generation fleet for over 115 years, providing strong and enduring cash flows. This strength is grounded in a diversified portfolio of hydro, wind, solar, storage and thermal assets across three countries, enhanced by our industry-leading asset optimization and energy marketing capabilities.
Our legacy sites continue to represent considerable and increasing value. We are proactively pursuing repurposing initiatives at these facilities to address the growing demand for reliable power in our operating markets. Concurrently, we maintain a leadership position across multiple technologies, consistently prioritizing responsible and reliable generation. We are disciplined in how we grow. Our priority is creating shareholder value as we diversify our portfolio within our core geographies and continue to increase the proportion of stable and contracted cash flows. This strategy is supported by a strong financial foundation. We have a flexible balance sheet and ample liquidity, giving us the ability to pursue and deliver multiple growth opportunities while continuing to return capital to shareholders.
And finally, and most importantly, we have our people. Everything we accomplish starts with the expertise, commitment and dedication of our employees and contractors. I want to thank them for everything they do to safely and reliably power our customers, execute our strategy and position TransAlta for continued success. Thank you and I’ll now turn the call back over to Stephanie.
Stephanie Paris (Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Strategy)
Thank you, Joel. Andrew, would you please open the call for questions from the analysts?
Andrew (Operator)
Certainly. As a reminder to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. One moment please. Our first question comes from the line of John Mould with TD Securities.
John Mould (Analyst)
Hi, morning everybody. Maybe I’d just like to start with the mothballing of the Battle River units, wondering why now, just given the soft pricing environment and let’s say relatively soft dispatch volumes that you highlighted in your prepared remarks. And then why the Battle River units versus other lower utilization coal-to-gas units, and I’m thinking Sheerness too as an example. And how should we think about what market conditions or contracting opportunities could drive returning any of these units to service ahead of the timelines you’ve laid out?
Joel Hunter (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, thanks, John. It’s Joel here. I’d say that we spent a lot of time kind of analyzing this, similar to previous mothballs that we’ve announced with Battle River. When you look at the capacity factors for both units 4 and 5, they’re very low currently and they were low last year. This is purely an economic decision and really to preserve the long-term optionality for both these assets as load will increase over time with data centers coming into the province.
So again, a lot of time spent kind of analyzing this and how do we kind of lower our costs? So it is an economic decision. We communicated this with the government, with the AESO. Nothing to read into it here. We still remain very confident in our ability for data center load to come to the province. This is simply to position these assets really longer term. And so as we think longer term with data center load, we expect that we would have long-term contracts that would underpin these assets, including potentially Battle River 4 and 5 as part of this. So again a lot of time considered here to this mothball, but it really is an economic decision. And in fact, we’re not even—with the employees there, John. There’s 45 employees there. They’ll remain on site here and really to ready these assets for the longer term here.
And as we’ve mentioned before, Battle River 4 and 5, similar to our other gas-fired steam units, can easily flex up to over 90% kind of a capacity factor with very little kind of capital behind them. So again, we’re just trying to preserve the long-term optionality here as load will come to the province longer term.
John Mould (Analyst)
Okay, thanks for that. And then maybe just moving on to the data center MoU at Keephills, and you know, thanks for all that information on the open house that you had. You know, there is a reference, as you noted, to up to 1.6 gigawatts of capacity there. The original MoU you announced early in the year referenced 1 gigawatt. Has the MoU scope been formally increased to support this 1.6 gigawatts? And in terms of timing, you previously pointed to definitive documentation in 2026.
Is that still your expectation, given where you’re at in the underutilized generation discussions with AESO and then the bring-your-own-generation process more broadly?
Joel Hunter (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, John, I would say you think about when we signed the MoU back in February, there were still a lot of unknowns. We had our 230 megawatts under phase one of the large load integration, and our customers at Brookfield and CPP Investments, you know, they wanted to look to increase that. And so we said, you know, up to one gigawatt at the time. You know, since then, with the data center regulations that we saw from the government back in June, it really recognizing that underutilized generation should be considered here as part of kind of for it to serve data center load allowed us to go up to this 1.6.
I would say this is initial, you know, based on the site, what we have today. And so we remain very encouraged by that and, you know, the ability to think not only how we can serve that 1.6, which would come from, you know, a function of the 230 under phase one, also the assets that we have right there with Keephills and Sundance being right next door, and really our whole fleet, if you will, along with kind of longer term how we could look to rebuild those facilities here, repower them kind of in next decade.
Your question around this year for the definitive agreements? I would just say to you that they continue to be ongoing and we remain very encouraged by it and working very collaboratively with our customers and can’t say definitively if it’ll be this year or sometime, obviously in 2027. I think once we have a full understanding of what the underutilized generation that we can actually use here will be an important step forward to really kind of advance the definitive agreements here to the final stage here.
So I wouldn’t say it’s probably 2026. It’s probably into sometime early into 2027 at this point in time, once we understand exactly the amount that we can offer our customers as it relates to our underutilized generation.
John Mould (Analyst)
Okay, thanks very much for that color. I’ll get back in the queue.
Joel Hunter (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks, John.
Andrew (Operator)
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mark Jarvie with CIBC.
Mark Jarvie (Analyst)
Yeah, thanks. Good morning. Just picking up on those comments, Joel. Just curious, in terms of the timeline for the discussions with the AESO and the underutilized assets, is that possible to wrap up by year end and then you move to the final negotiation of the Brookfield tpp, or is that also something that probably you get clarity in early 27.
Joel Hunter (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, Mark, I can’t really obviously speak for the AESO other than as we’ve said before, and it continues to be the case that we work very collaboratively with them. Ongoing discussions with the AESO here and, you know, we expect something in the near term is all I can say. We don’t have anything definitive at this point in time. As I mentioned, you know, in responding to John’s question, I think once we have clarity on what we’re actually—the amount that we have—then as far as definitive agreements, they will come together, I would expect, relatively quickly here, given that they are very well advanced at this stage.
It’s really just trying to fill in the blank, if you will, as to how much we’re actually offering beyond kind of our phase one allocation here. But again, discussions remain very fluid with the AESO, very collaborative, and we’re trying to achieve a common goal here where we know we want to bring data centers to the province, but we want to ensure reliability for the grid along with affordability for Albertans here going forward.
Mark Jarvie (Analyst)
Just to follow up on that, Joel, then just with the discussions, is it the terms of the usage of the assets that is requiring the most effort right now? Is it the scope of megawatts? And then in terms of the potential terms around either curtailment or restrictions on the units, can you share anything in terms of what might be amenable or you guys would be comfortable with on those units?
Joel Hunter (President and Chief Executive Officer)
You know, Mark, I can’t really because it does remain kind of confidential here. We have to respect, you know, our discussions that we have with AESO. But I would say it’s all the bubble, right. That we want to ensure that we get it right here as to, first of all, what’s the allocation and, you know, how curtailment will work. And I think what we said before is then we have, you know, obviously a product that we can then offer to our customers, that they can then offer to their customers.
And so again, it really is all the bub that you mentioned there. But again, it remains very constructive at this point and well advanced. Just can’t give it a timeline other than we expect to hear something probably in the near term.
Mark Jarvie (Analyst)
And then just on the repowering projects, just curious where you guys, what you’re seeing in them right now in terms of cost and equipment availability. Are you actively out there looking to price out the repowerings right now or is that sort of something that’s going to happen in the next year or two.
Joel Hunter (President and Chief Executive Officer)
I would say to you that we remain very active knowing that the lead times here, Mark, are very long. Nothing has really changed from our last update where if you look at, for a large frame unit, to get a turbine, for example, you know, you’re looking at, you know, five-plus years from the time you actually get into the queue to actually taking delivery. So as we think into—really we’re thinking into the next decade here as it relates to repowering here.
So those discussions, obviously we’re putting a lot of effort behind it right now, just given the lead times that we see. We are in the queue for a large frame unit, which is very good, and we’re looking for other opportunities right now and obviously forming a business case for the usage of these units. But I think really in the near term the best use is our underutilized generation that is the cheapest and it’s speed to power for data centers. And so that is really the focus and then really thinking more longer term, how do you repower those facilities? And those are discussions obviously we’re having with our customers right now here because, again, they’re not going to sign up for five, 10 years. They’re looking for longer term as they make large capital investments for data centers.
And so certainly we have an ability here to power those facilities for their existing generation for the medium term, if you will. And then we would look to repower kind of longer term.
Mark Jarvie (Analyst)
Sounds good. Appreciate the comments.
Joel Hunter (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks Mark.
Andrew (Operator)
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Maurice Choi with RBC Capital Markets.
Maurice Choi (Analyst)
Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Just wanted to take a step back and look at the power markets more broadly across North America. With the changing market dynamics, policies, and politics in certain power markets in the U.S., have you seen a different tone from your prospective data center customers when they are looking at Alberta as an option?
Joel Hunter (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, Maurice, I would say the short answer to that is yes, we have, and it’s a positive tone. When you look at the moratoriums that are out there today, just pick a few markets. For example, there are moratoriums in Texas, Pennsylvania, New York, and we know the demand for power is not abating. And we’ve talked about this before, where there’s just so much demand that far exceeds the amount of power that’s available almost in the near term that, all of a sudden, when you look at Alberta here, where there’s obviously strong policy support from the government, strong support from the AESO, we are the only jurisdiction that really, I’d say, is long power within North America.
So again, we talked about speed to power. I think that there is a real opportunity here for Alberta. And again, I applaud what the government and what the AESO have done here. They’ve been very deliberate and very focused on ensuring they don’t want to compromise reliability or affordability here for Albertans. And so at times people might feel a bit frustrated by that, but I think it’s actually very intentional and very focused, not only in the medium term, but the long term.
And because we’ve seen what’s happened in other jurisdictions where maybe the build-out has gone too quickly and, as a result, it requires a lot more infrastructure that results in higher utility bills for customers. And as a result of that, we’ve seen the moratoriums. So I think, all that being said, it’s been directionally positive here for Alberta as we move forward to bring data centers to the province.
Maurice Choi (Analyst)
Thank you. And if I could just finish off with a deeper exploration about the Battle River mothball position, but taking a little bit of an alternate approach here. When the Heartland Generation deal closed at the end of 2024, I had thought that this unit would have been mothballed a lot sooner, and certainly not almost two years after the deal closed. Assuming you agree with that, can you just help me dissect what was the outlook for this facility back then, and then compare that outlook to what actually transpired over the last two years?
Joel Hunter (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, I would say, you know, when we closed the acquisition back in December of 2024, really at that point in time, data centers and the discussion around data centers in Alberta was really starting to come into place, if you will. And so we’re very fortunate, actually, when we think about Battle River 4 and 5. The initial investment thesis didn’t contemplate data centers coming to the province and was thinking probably more of a longer-term repowering opportunity for that facility, knowing that it is an older facility, has a higher heat rate and therefore the capacity factor is going to be lower.
You fast forward to today where things look a lot differently. And this is what’s really encouraging for our employees here at TransAlta. When I talk to our folks out in the field, especially for our gas-fired steam units, knowing that, and we’ve been saying this all along, that you have this surplus capacity, how best can you use it and ensure reliability within the province? And so I think this is a real win-win where, all of a sudden, we’re bringing new load to the province here with data centers.
At the same time, these units will run for longer, and they can run for longer, and that ensures reliability for the province, which is critically important here. So, a lot has changed, Maurice, since the initial thesis around the Heartland acquisition. But certainly right now, looking back on it, we’re very fortunate to have made this acquisition and acquiring it at the multiple that we did. And we got some really great assets out of it that I think really create a lot of long-term optionality for our company as it relates to data centers and just future opportunities that we see there. Because what we do know is that having steel in the ground is very important.
When you think about access to natural gas, water, transmission, that’s one thing you see with our units, whether it’s Battle River 4 and 5, Sheerness 1, Sundance 5, you pick any one of them. They all have that in common, that they are ideally situated, and they’re located on industrial lands too, which is important because we hear a lot about NIMBYism and, really, we don’t see that here. We are very actively engaged with our stakeholders in these regions and looking for future development here.
And these are assets that have been around for decades, and we hope that they’re around for decades to come.
Maurice Choi (Analyst)
It’s great to have optionality. Thank you very much for that.
Joel Hunter (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks, Maurice.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Benjamin Pham with BMO.
Benjamin Pham (Analyst)
Hi, thanks. Good morning. I know you mentioned that you’re waiting for the AESO outcome with respect to unutilized capacity to perhaps firm up a definitive agreement for the Keephills Boreal project. You did mention that you need to wait for the Phase 2A intake results to drive that. Is there a reason for that?
Joel Hunter (President and Chief Executive Officer)
You know, I’d say, Ben, first of all, again as I mentioned earlier, that we’re well advanced with the Phase One, the 230. And, as I mentioned earlier when we announced the MoU back in February, we talked up to 1 gigawatt, while we now know that that could be a higher number, and you saw that from the open house. They are linked together in that we’re not only looking for 230, but how big can this be? And so our team here is working very closely with the teams at Brookfield and CPPI around that to put those definitive agreements in place.
So it is important to understand how big we are talking about here. And again, I think we’ll, hopefully, hear back in the near term around our unutilized generation and what that will constitute. And then from there, I would expect that the definitive agreements would come together relatively quickly after that.
Benjamin Pham (Analyst)
Okay, got it. And Joel, you mentioned earlier you’re defining the 1.6 total as Phase One. Can you unpack that a bit? Is that analogous to the Greenlight project, where they broke it up into two phases but they called it one phase?
Joel Hunter (President and Chief Executive Officer)
I’m not sure, Ben. I’m sorry, if I look at it that way. I think when I look at the 1.6, and we showed this at the open house, where we’d call Phase One the initial data center, which would be one facility around 230 megawatts, up to 300 megawatts. And then, going from there, I think we could have up to six facilities on site there. So I’m not comparing this to Greenlight. I’m looking at this as in phases and what we want to show for Phase One because, of course, we have clarity on that allocation at 230.
So at the open house, we really focused on that, and we talked about the water usage, for example, that we would see for Phase One. We talked about the economic benefits, the number of people we’d employ for Phase One. But again, as we learn more about how much we ultimately have, then we’ll be able to share more. But that’s the way I look at this: phases within our project, if you know what I mean.
Benjamin Pham (Analyst)
That’s very helpful. Thank you.
Joel Hunter (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks, Ben.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Robert Hope with Scotiabank.
Robert Hope (Analyst)
Morning, everyone. Maybe a follow-up question on that. As you’re thinking about the build-up at Keephills, when you’re envisioning that one moving up to 1.6, would that all be under the Brookfield/CPP agreement, or are you envisioning the potential for further phases to be supported by other customers? And are you in discussions regarding that?
Joel Hunter (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, Rob, we obviously remain very focused working with Brookfield and CPPI on this, as evidenced by the open house and up to the 1.6. But we do have the optionality to work with others here. So our focus, again, is to keep everybody laser-focused on the prize here and really think about what we’ve got here at Boreal with our partners. But to the extent that we see further ability to do more, then it could be with them, but it also could be with other customers.
As you can well imagine, there’s a lot of interest, given, as I mentioned earlier, where we do have moratoriums elsewhere within North America, where I think there’s a lot of focus on Alberta at this point in time. But we do remain focused working on the Boreal technology hub with our partners, but it doesn’t preclude us from working with others as well.
Robert Hope (Analyst)
All right, thanks for that. And then maybe a broader question just in terms of recycling of capital. We saw the transaction in Oklahoma a couple of weeks ago. How are you thinking about monetizing other assets in non-core geographies and/or modalities?
Mike Politeski (Executive Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer)
Hey Rob, it’s Mike. Maybe I’ll take this one. Yeah. So asset recycling is important for us right now. It’s going to play a part in getting our balance sheet back to where we want it to be. Happy with the start that we had with the Oklahoma sale and the proceeds we brought in there, partnering with Ares — great partner, and happy with how that transaction played out. If you look going forward, the internal team here is continuing to move and advance other opportunities. I think we’ve talked before around the size of our portfolio. We have over 90 assets in the portfolio. Many of them are outside of our core areas. Lots of smaller assets that aren’t contributing much. And you saw that actually during the quarter — we moved out a small asset and brought in $27 million. Kind of under the radar, but there are lots of opportunities within the portfolio that we can look to monetize and bring in proceeds.
We’re going to be patient, we’re going to be thoughtful. We’ve got to ensure the deals are making sense and we’re bringing in fair value. But for sure the team has stood up and is advancing other initiatives, and I guess stay tuned for further progress on this front. Thank you.
OPERATOR
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone. Our next question comes from the line of Patrick Kenney with National Bank Capital Markets.
Patrick Kenney (Analyst)
Good morning, Joel. Just back on Boreal, sounds like there wasn’t much in the way of negative feedback from the open house. But perhaps you can confirm if there are any key concerns from the community that you might look to address at your November 12th meeting, and how you might be positioning the project to address or get ahead of any of those outstanding issues.
Joel Hunter (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, thanks, Pat. I would say overall, we were very pleased with the open house. It ran for four hours. There were just over 180 people there. A lot of, obviously, local folks; they’re very interested in the project. You know, I think, you know, the takeaway was, you know, they want to understand more, you know, around data centers. It’s still, even though we talk a lot about data centers, it’s still relatively new. And, you know, they have questions around, you know, for example, like, what’s the amount of noise that will come from the facility?
You know, what’s the amount of water that would be used, for example. And these will be covered in further detail as part of the technical sessions, you know, going forward here really, to address, you know, any kind of concerns or questions that our stakeholders may have around that. But I’d say overall, Pat, we were very pleased. I thought the team did a really great job being very well organized. We had kind of like 30 kind of storyboards, if you will, there at the site so that people can walk around and ask questions of the team. And so it was very, very engaged. There were no protests or anything like that. It was really people just trying to get more information. And again, I think this is something, you know, for TransAlta.
We have been in this area for over 70 years with the Keephills and Sundance facilities. So it’s certainly an area that we are very familiar with. We’re very engaged with the local communities and First Nations as well. And I would say, overall, we were very pleased with the outcome and we look forward to the next kind of technical sessions here, which will, I think, do more of a deeper dive on some of the technical questions that arise, as I mentioned earlier, from a project of this size.
Patrick Kenney (Analyst)
Okay, thanks for the additional color there. And then, I guess, early days on getting the keys to the Colorado facility, but curious. Any early indications or opportunities that you might be seeing to, you know, leverage your position in the region to either expand your presence in the U.S. WECC market, either from a trading or additional M&A perspective.
Joel Hunter (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, I would say, Pat, and this goes back to, you know, when we announced the transaction, you know, back in June, kind of our thesis around making this acquisition, you know, as you highlighted there, you know, when we look at the WECC, the western United States, it’s a core market, core geography for us. And today we don’t have a lot, or we didn’t prior to the acquisition, was really our investment in Centralia. Now having two brand new facilities of 318 megawatts, fully contracted for 27 years with two very high-quality counterparties, I think does create a lot of opportunity for us going forward within Colorado.
Today, Colorado burns roughly 20, 25% of their power from coal and they will move off of coal to natural gas. So I think that in and of itself can create an opportunity here for TransAlta that we didn’t have prior to making this acquisition. We also have a new partner, if you will, with Kindle through Blackstone. This is who we acquired the assets from, where they’re looking for other opportunities as well within the WECC that certainly TransAlta might be able to partner with them, and especially really leveraging our marketing and trading capabilities, as you mentioned here, as they look for future development there. So I think it’s, again, a real opportunity here for us. Early days, but now we have a platform to really build off within a core market for us.
So I’m very happy with the transaction. It closed kind of on time and the commissioning went extremely well with the last unit coming online. And Chris Fralick had the opportunity to be out there on Friday and came away very encouraged by the team there and obviously the assets. And now we will look for future opportunities there to further develop our presence in Colorado and within the West.
Patrick Kenney (Analyst)
Okay, that’s great. Thanks, Joel.
Joel Hunter (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks, Pat.
OPERATOR
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the conference back to Stephanie Paris for closing remarks.
Stephanie Paris (Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Strategy)
Thank you, everyone. That concludes our call for today. If you have any further questions, please contact the TransAlta investor relations team.
OPERATOR
This concludes today’s conference call. You may now disconnect.
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