CALGARY, ALBERTA, Nov 06 (MARKET WIRE) --
TransAlta Corporation (TSX: TA) (NYSE: TAC) held its annual Investor Day
Conference in Toronto today where its executive leadership team provided
investors with a comprehensive review of its financial outlook for 2009
to 2012.
"In 2009, TransAlta tackled the operational challenges in our Alberta
coal facilities, accelerated the growth of our renewable energy portfolio
and deepened our development pipeline, recontracted our Sarnia natural
gas facility, and made significant strides along the path to reduce our
carbon footprint," said Steve Snyder, president and chief executive
officer. "These initiatives are the core of our strategy to deliver near
and long-term value to our shareholders. On the strength of these
initiatives, and assuming no increase in demand or natural gas prices
before 2011 in our core markets, we expect earnings and cash flow growth
to resume in 2010."
"TransAlta has a unique portfolio of diverse and highly-contracted assets
that underpin our low to moderate risk strategy and support our dividend.
On top of this foundation, we expect investors will assign increased
value in the years ahead to TransAlta's position as Canada's leading
publicly-traded provider of renewable energy," said Snyder.
Today, renewable and natural gas assets account for 43 per cent of
TransAlta's installed megawatts and nearly 50 per cent of the company's
earnings before interest taxes and depreciation (EBITDA).
At today's meeting, TransAlta showed that the majority of its plants
perform at or above the median of industry benchmark levels. For the few
that don't, the company provided an update on its plans for improving
performance to a stable 90 per cent fleet availability level. Based on a
unit-by-unit analysis, TransAlta now believes a 90 per cent fleet
availability level offers a superior economic return when compared to the
company's previous target of 92 per cent. The level of capital required
to achieve 90 per cent availability also reduces the risk that capital
will become stranded by carbon regulation that remains highly uncertain.
TransAlta's major maintenance work in 2009 is already resulting in lower
forced outages at its Alberta coal plants. The company is targeting to
reduce forced outages at these facilities by 4.5 per cent in 2010.
"We believe TransAlta has the best renewable energy development portfolio
in Canada. In the near-term we see great potential to add more contracted
revenues from wind in jurisdictions across Canada as well as geothermal
in Southern California. In the medium and longer-term, there is potential
to develop our hydro resources in Alberta as well as baseload natural gas
combined cycle facilities as an alternative to lifecycle investments at
our Alberta coal sites. The announcement of funding for our Project
Pioneer, the world's first large scale coal-fired power plant carbon
capture and storage (CCS) retro-fit project, moves us one step closer to
making coal a valuable and sustainable fuel in a carbon-constrained
environment. We will continue to weigh the longer-term replacement of
coal generation with natural gas against the economics and viability of
continuing to run our coal plants with CCS," said Dawn Farrell, Chief
Operating Officer.
TransAlta also announced the commencement of commercial operations at its
66 MW, $115 million Blue Trail Wind Farm. The project was completed one
month ahead of schedule and on-budget. Located four kilometers from Fort
MacLeod, Blue Trail has 22, 3-MW wind turbines. It will provide an annual
average of 195,000 megawatts hours per year of electricity - enough to
meet the needs of 29,000 homes.
TransAlta now has a net generation capacity of 8,723 MW in operation, of
which 22 per cent or 1,966 MW is renewable energy. In addition, there are
477 MW under construction and nearly 700 MW considered in advanced
development.
Speaking to the company's financial outlook, Brian Burden, Chief
Financial Officer, said, "Over the 2010 - 2012 period, we expect cash
flow from operations to be approximately $3 billion. After accounting for
the dividend, and sustaining and announced growth capital, we expect to
have approximately $600 million of free cash available. While our
priority remains to deliver low carbon growth projects that will provide
long-term cash flows, we will remain disciplined in our capital
allocation and weigh these opportunities against other capital allocation
alternatives and maintaining our investment grade credit ratings."
Links to the webcast and presentation slides are available on TransAlta's
website, www.transalta.com, under Webcasts in the Investor Relations
section. A recording of the webcast is also available on TransAlta's
website.
Dial in number:
Toll-free North American participants 1-888-396-8064
TransAlta is a power generation and wholesale marketing company focused
on creating long-term shareholder value. We maintain a low-to-moderate
risk profile by operating a highly contracted portfolio of assets in
Canada, the United States and Australia. Our focus is to efficiently
operate our biomass, geothermal, wind, hydro, natural gas and coal
facilities in order to provide our customers with a reliable, low-cost
source of power. For nearly 100 years, we've been a responsible operator
and a proud contributor to the communities where we work and live.
TransAlta is recognized for its leadership on sustainability by the Dow
Jones Sustainability North America Index, the FTSE4Good Index and the
Jantzi Social Index.
This news release may contain forward-looking statements, including
statements regarding the business and anticipated financial performance
of TransAlta Corporation. These statements are based on TransAlta
Corporation's belief and assumptions based on information available at
the time the assumption was made. These statements are subject to a
number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ
materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements.
Some of the factors that could cause such differences include legislative
or regulatory developments, competition, global capital markets activity,
changes in prevailing interest rates, currency exchange rates, inflation
levels and general economic conditions in geographic areas where
TransAlta Corporation operates.
Note: All financial figures are in Canadian dollars unless noted
otherwise.
Contacts:
TransAlta Corporation - Media inquiries
Michael Lawrence
Manager, External Relations
(403) 267-7330
michael_lawrence@transalta.com
TransAlta Corporation - Investor inquiries
Jennifer Pierce
Vice President, Communications & Investor Relations
(403) 267-7622 or 1-800-387-3598 in Canada and U.S
investor_relations@transalta.com
TransAlta Corporation - Investor inquiries
Jess Nieukerk
Manager, Investor Relations
(403) 267-3607 or 1-800-387-3598 in Canada and U.S.
jess_nieukerk@transalta.com
www.transalta.com
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