TransAlta Alberta Sundance 4 coal unit restarts

LOS ANGELES, Jan 12 (Reuters) - TransAlta Corp's (TA.TO) 406-megawatt Unit 4 at the Sundance coal-fired power plant in Alberta restarted Monday afternoon after being shut since Jan. 4, the Alberta Electric System Operator said in a report.

All of the other units were also available for service.

The 2,071 megawatt Sundance station is located 70 kms (43 miles) west of Edmonton, Alberta, on the south shore of Wabamun Lake.

There are six units at the station, including two 280 MW units, 1 (which entered service in 1970) and 2 (1973), two 353 MW units, 3 (1976) and 5 (1978), Unit 4 (1977) and the 399 MW Unit 6 (1980).

The plant consumes 9 million tonnes of coal each year from TransAlta's Highvale Mine.

The company said on its website the power from the plant is governed by a power purchase agreement dated from Jan. 1, 2001 until Dec. 31, 2017, for Units 1 and 2, and Dec. 31, 2020, for Units 3, 4, 5 and 6. Additionally, 53 MW of power from Unit 4 and 44 MW of power from Unit 6 are sold through the PPA Buyers to the Alberta Power Pool.

One MW powers about 1,000 homes in Alberta.

TransAlta of Calgary, Alberta, owns and operates about 9,000 MW of generating capacity and markets energy commodities in Canada, the United States, Mexico and Australia. (Reporting by Bernie Woodall, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)