Following the shut-down of the fourth and final unit, TransAlta is now the first company in Alberta to undertake complete decommissioning of a coal-fired plant. Production from the Whitewood Mine ceased coinciding with the closure of the plant and reclamation activities will begin shortly.

In November 2002, TransAlta announced plans to implement a phased shut-down of the Wabamun plant. Unit 3 was shut-down in 2002 and Units 1 and 2 were shut-down in December 2004. The decision to decommission the Wabamun plant was made after a careful and thorough analysis which identified the costs to upgrade the 50 year-old facility to emerging environmental standards outweighed the benefits of continuing operation.

The Wabamun site was chosen for TransAlta’s first coal-fired facility because of its proximity

to the large load centre in Edmonton, an adequate supply of cooling water and a significant deposit of some 50 to 60 million tonnes of coal located at the nearby Whitewood Mine.

Wabamun’s team of hardworking and knowledgeable maintenance and operations employees have been

reassigned and will be integrated into other areas. “For more than 50 years some of

our most talented employees kept the lights on in Alberta at the Wabamun

Plant,” said Steve Snyder, President and CEO of

TransAlta.

“Many lived in the community of Wabamun and I’d like to express my sincerest appreciation to the community for its ongoing support and commitment to TransAlta and our families.”

TransAlta is especially proud of the relationship developed between our company and the Village of Wabamun over the years. With important plans for tourism and development in the Wabamun area, we were pleased to discuss the options for some of the land zoned to TransAlta, west of the village, to be reclaimed for future development.

“We saw reclaiming this land for future use as an easy way to demonstrate our commitment to listening to our neighbours, “said Ralph Leriger, manager of Stakeholder Relations at TransAlta. ”And, we’re very pleased to do what we can to be a part of their plans to ensure economic sustainability for their community.”

Building community connections April 2010

Kilowatt Connection.Final days at TransAlta’s first coal-fired generating plant.

At the Keephills 3 plant, the commissioning phase is now underway. Commissioning is the process during which the hand over from construction to operation takes place. As various parts of the facility are completed, commissioning activities can begin. Until the completion of construction, both commissioning and construction can be happening at once. When the entire facility has been given the final stamp of approval, we are able to declare commercial operation.

Contractually, Capital Power is responsible for the construction phase, and TransAlta the operational phase. However, given that these two phases overlap, Capital Power representatives will continue to work onsite, reducing their involvement over several months after commercial operation is achieved.

There are a number of critical activities that take place during commissioning, including:

•Completesystemwalkdowns(inspections)

•Firstenergizationofequipment

•Runningequipmentforthefirsttimeandmakingadjustments

•Runningequipmentaspartofthebiggersystems

•Performancetestrunofentiresystemtovalidateguarantees

•Finalacceptanceofequipment(thepowerplant)

Craig Beattie, Keephills 3 project manager for TransAlta, confirms we are on track to achieve commercial operation in the first quarter of 2011.”Given our past successful experience in commissioning coal plants, as well as our strong working relationship with Capital Power, we are confident that commissioning activities will be completed according to plan and within our projected timelines,” he says.

Commissioning Keephills 3Anticipated Key

Milestones in 2010January •Startinstrumentation,

air compressor system control

February/March •Boilerhydro

•Watertreatmentplantcommissioning begins

April / May•Turbinelubeoilflushing

July/August •Airbalancetests

•Firstboilerfire

August / September•Steamblows

September / October•Synchronizationtothegrid

and combustion testing

October / December•Unitcontrolstuning

Traffic and Road SafetyKeephills 3 - Construction Traffic ScheduleThe majority of the K3 construction traffic accesses the site from the east in the morningandtravelseastfromthesiteintheafternoon.Maximumtrafficflowsare15–20minutesinduration.Thefollowingoutlinesthepeakflowtraffictimes.Thisinformation is provided so that residents may avoid use of the noted highways at peaktimes(ifpossible)toreducetraveltimedelaysduetotrafficvolume.Weanticipate traffic volume to steadily decrease over the coming months as fewer workers are required onsite.

Monday – Friday (a.m.)6:30 a.m. - 7 a.m.

Westbound on Hwy 627 – enter site via RR40

Monday – Thursday (p.m.)5:25 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.

Eastbound on Hwy 627 – exit site via RR40

Friday (p.m.)3:25 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.

Eastbound on Hwy 627 – exit site via RR40

TransAlta and Capital Power monitor employee and contractor driving behaviours on roads and highways that access the Keephills 3 site. To help ensure a high standard of safety, residents are encouraged to phone the K3 Stakeholder Hotline at 1-877-636-7823 if they witness unsafe or aggressive driving practices.

Bus use by workers continues to increase and currently 17 busses transport almost 50 per cent of the 1,600 workers to and from site each day.

On March 31, TransAlta’s Wabamun plant ceased operations after more than 50 years of supplying Albertans with low-cost, reliable power.

www.transalta.com

Over the past year there has been a steady increase in activities at Pit 4 of the Highvale Mine. We are aware that with this ramp up in activity, there have been questions and concerns voiced by our neighbours.We are planning to hold a stakeholder information meeting to share our mine plans, as well as to take the opportunity to discuss any concerns you may have.We intend to hold the meeting at the Jack Pine Community Hall this spring. We will provide public notice when the date and time are confirmed.

TransAlta is committed to open dialogue with our stakeholders and are looking forward to meeting with you. To receive more information about the stakeholder meeting, or for any further information about our activity at the Highvale Mine, please call 1-877-636-7822.

Highvale Mine Stakeholder Meetings

TransAlta currently has 412 MW of projects in

development: 46 MW for Keephills 1 and 2 uprates;

225 MW for Keephills 3; 18 MW for Bone Creek hydro

project and 123 MW for Ardenville and Kent Hills Expansion wind projects.

How will Project Pioneer WorkProject Pioneer will be among the world’s first projects to test the full life cycle of CCS.

Operatingby2015,ProjectPioneerwillbeintegratedwithKeephills3(K3)–a450MWsupercriticalcoal-firedplant jointly owned by TransAlta and Capital Power.

Located 70 kilometres west of Edmonton, Alberta, K3 is ideally situated overtop potential saline aquifer storage sitesandnearlarge,oilfieldssuitableforenhancedoilrecovery(EOR).For2010,thekeyfocusforProjectPioneeristhecompletionofthefront-endengineeringanddesign(FEED)work.

We look forward to meeting with you early this summer at our project open houses. For more information about Project Pioneer, and dates of these open houses, please visit www.projectpioneer.ca

Project Pioneer: How Will it Work?

Project Pioneer is among the world’s largest fully-integrated carbon capture and storage (CCS) initiatives within the power sector. It will be a near-commercial scale demonstration of all elements of the CCS chain through a unique combination of partners, technology and integration.

Building community connections

TransAlta’s 2010 Safety GoalsThe health and safety of our employees and communities is of paramount importance at TransAlta. We believe that achieving zero safety incidents is possible. Our rigorous management system, based on the OHSAS 18001 framework, guides our way. Our signature workforce safety program, Target Zero, is a way of working that is integrated into all that we do.

This belief extends to:

•Aworkenvironmentwhereallknownhazardsareeliminatedorsafeguarded

•Peoplewhounderstandtheirjobs,areproperlytrained,arementallyandphysicallyfit, and follow proper work practices so that safety is integrated into all tasks performed

•Anempoweredworkforcewhereindividualstakeresponsibilityfortheirownsafety, the safety of those they work with, and the safety of the communities surrounding our operations

In 2010, TransAlta’s coal & mining, renewables, gas and construction teams all have theirsightssetonachievingaggressivebutachievablesafetytargetsacrossthefleet.Overall, this year we are striving to achieve an almost 13 per cent improvement compared to our year end in 2009. The teams are aiming to reduce the total number of recordable incidents to 52 compared to 56 in 2009.

“We are getting back to the basics to improve our safety performance in 2010 to ensure that everyone goes home safely at the end of each day,” said Rod Kause, director, Corporate Environment Health & Safety. “Each team is committed to driving a true safety culture in order to achieve outstanding results this year.”

In order to decrease the number of injuries by our contractors during outages in 2009 extra efforts are in place for aggressive pre-outage safety orientation and training. Significant work is also underway to educate and train all new employees as part of their integration into TransAlta’s safety culture, tools and polices and procedures.

As of March 3, 2010, there have been only six recordable incidents. “By working together and remaining focused we can maintain this positive trend and celebrate our best first quarter performance ever,” added Kause.

On Oct. 20, TransAlta celebrated 100 years of incorporation.

Today we are positioning our company for the next 100 years.

On January 11, TransAlta was awarded a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA)toprovideanadditional 54 MW of wind power to New Brunswick Power Distribution and Customer Service Corporation through an expansion of our Kent Hills wind farm in New Brunswick.

“We are pleased to have been awarded another long-term PPA with New Brunswick Power, and continue our strong relationship with them,” said Steve Snyder, TransAlta’s President and CEO. “With the completion of the Kent Hills expansion next year, we will have over 1,000 MW of wind power and over 2,000 MW of renewable energy in operation across Canada and the United States.”

Under the agreement, TransAlta will expand its existing 96 MW Kent Hills wind facility which began commercial operations in December 2008. The 18-turbine expansion will be located just south of the current Kent Hills wind facility which is southwest of Moncton, NB. The facility will use V90-3.0 MW wind turbines purchased from Vestas. TransAlta expects construction to commence in early 2010 and the facility to be in service by the end of 2010. Once complete, the facility is expected to provide 160,000 megawatt hours per year.

The project is subject to regulatory and environmental approvals and is expected to begin commercial operations by the end of 2010.

Kent Hills Wind Farm Expansion Announced

TransAlta’s Renewable PortfolioAs TransAlta is built on a century of experience, we are aware of the importance in planning for the future. In the coming years, we plan to dedicate the majority of our planned growth capacity to renewable power and maintain a singular focus on generation to satisfy the growing demand for clean, reliable and competitively priced electricity.

One important example of this focus was the acquisition of Canadian Hydro Developers in 2009. Through this acquisition TransAlta has increased its wind portfolio from 15 to 22 per cent of total power produced. Canadian Hydro brings to TransAlta a unique set of quality renewable assets, expands its renewable focus across Canada and provides a pipeline for growth opportunities.

•Thisyear,TransAltawilloperate1,000MWofwindenergy

•ThecompanyisCanada’slargestproducerofwindpower,operatingoverathirdofCanada’sinstalledwindcapacity

•TransAltanowhaswindassetsfromcoasttocoastinCanadaandinnearlyeveryprovince

In Alberta, our most current renewable energy projects are wind farms in the southern part of the province. The Summerview 2 wind farm achieved commercial operation in February of this year and the Ardenville wind farm is scheduled to come online in early 2011.

Building community connections

2.8 km

CaptureAlstom Canada, Project Pioneer’s technology partner will complete a large-scale test of its chilled ammonia process to capture one megatonne of CO2 annually from K3. The capture process includes three steps:

•FlueGasCooling.Thefluegasfromtheboilerwill be cooledto improve absorption of CO2.

•CO2 Absorption. Using an ammonium carbonate solution the CO2 will be absorbed to form an ammonium bicarbonate solution.

• High-Pressure Regeneration. The ammonium bicarbonate solution will be pressurized and further treated to separate

CO2 for transport. The remaining ammonium bicarbonate removed from the CO2 will be returned for use again in

the CO2 absorption process.

TransportTwopipelines–onetostorage(sequestration)andoneto oilfield injection.

•Parallel transport systems. Project Pioneer will test two storage methods requiring two CO2 transport lines with no additional compression required.

• Final routing to be determined. Both pipelines will be about 20 to 40 kilometres in length; completion of the FEED study will confirm final routing.

StorageTwo processes will be tested – geological sequestration and EOR.

•Permanent Sequestration. The Wabamun Area Sequestration study has confirmed Project Pioneer is well-situated to large volume saline aquifers, providing significant and safe CO2 storage capacity.

• Secondary Markets. Alberta is a world leader in oil reserve extraction and Project Pioneer is located within 40 kilometres of the large Pembina oilfield - ideal for EOR opportunities.

TransAlta plans to keep stakeholders informed of our progress on this project through articles in Kilowatt Connection, regular updates to the website www.projectpioneer.ca and open houses in the upcoming months. Should you have a question relating to Project Pioneer, please contact us at info@projectpioneer.ca.

www.transalta.com

To change your address, to receive the Kilowatt Connection electronically or if you have a question or comment, please contact us at: kilowatt_connection@transalta.com or 1-877-636-7822.

TransAlta in Your Community Helping the Paul First Nation experience the Olympic spiritThe spirit of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games touched members of the Paul First Nation, when nine of its youth ran in the Olympic Torch Relay.

On January 13, the team of runners got on a bus at 6 a.m. to travel to Vegreville, Alberta. From there, the group ran one kilometre with the torch. Along the route they were joined by drummers, dancers, family and friends. The supporters came out to cheer them on, recognize the efforts they put in to participate and inspire others, as well as to celebrate their communities’ participation in the event. The team was one of only two youth groups in Alberta that were chosen to be a part of the relay.

TransAlta proudly played a role in making this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity a reality by contributing to the group’s trip expenses. The Paul First Nation has been an important neighbour of TransAlta’s for generations.

TransAlta Supports Red Cross Haitian Relief Efforts As news spread detailing the devastation to the Caribbean country of Haiti, TransAlta immediately stepped up to support international relief efforts. TransAlta made an initial donation of C$25,000 on Jan. 15 to the Canadian Red Cross Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund, and committed to match employee and TransAlta retiree donations. The generous donations from employees and TransAlta retirees poured in, and we were able to make a total corporate donation of $59,489 to the Canadian Red Cross.

1909 – 1919: TransAlta’s founding fatherWilliam Maxwell Aitken – was born in New Brunswick, Canada in 1879. He was a lawyer by training, but later became a financier, writer, publisher and politician. In 1909 under the umbrella of his Royal Securities Company, he founded Calgary Power Company, Limited. As the company’s first president, Aitken concentrated early efforts on the development of the Horseshoe Falls hydro station.

In 1916, while living in England, Aitken served as Minister of Information and Minister of Supply under British Prime Ministers Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. He was raised to the British House of Lords, with the title First Baron of Beaverbrook. He died in 1964 in Surrey, England at the age of 85.

1920 – 1929: A decade of promiseW.R. “Bill” Wolley-Dod – was born in Calgary in 1896. He was a surveyor and an explorer who spent an entire winter completing the initial survey of the Spray Lakes area in the early 1920s, living in a tent and coming down to civilization only for supplies. Even though the Spray Lakes Hydro Development was built in late 1951; surveying of the area took place many years before construction. Wolley-Dod’s team included J.E. Spurling , “chief” of the expedition, R.E. Pugh, A.E Roebotham, G.B. Pusey and cook “Scotty” Lyall.

Wolley- Dod retired in 1963 after 40 years with Calgary Power. He died in 1974 at the age of 78.

1930 – 1939: The dirty thirties Fred Gaskell – was one of Calgary Power’s early inventive geniuses. He was born in 1898 in Newport, England. His family moved to Canada when he was only nine years old, settling in Okotoks, south of Calgary.

Gaskell started his lengthy career with Calgary Power as an electrician in 1926. In 1939, he designed and built the company’s first time control devices at the Ghost Plant. The time control devices kept electric clocks on time by automatically adjusting the generator speed at the plant. Years later, Gaskell refined his invention and expanded its use to the other hydro plants.

His ingenious mind kept him busy. He also invented a phone board at Seebe and a system load control, which electronically regulated the system load to keep the frequency correct. Gaskell retired as Seebe plant superintendent in 1965.

100 Years, 100 People

Years

On Oct. 20, 2009 TransAlta celebrated the 100th anniversary of its incorporation. Originally known as the Calgary Power Company, the company produced its first megawatt of electricity on May 21, 1911 when the Horseshoe hydro-electric plant was commissioned. Throughout all these years, TransAlta has benefitted from the dedication and passion of its employees. To recognize their efforts and celebrate their contributions, TransAlta will be recounting the stories of past and current employees who built and shaped our company to what it is today.

The early years

Powering Communities for SuccessTransAlta’s Community Investment program is one way that we show our commitment to our communities’ long-term sustainability. We demonstrate our support through monetary investments, and employee/retiree volunteerism. All support fits under at least one of our four funding focus areas: arts and culture; education and leadership; environment; and health and human services.

TransAlta’s United Way campaign puts over $120,000 back into your com-munityThroughout October, TransAlta employees, retirees and contractors across Canada and in Centralia, Washington, participated in the 2009 United Way campaign.

People came together to raise awareness and funds to help strengthen communities and improve lives where we operate and live. TransAlta staff working in and near our Lake Wabamun operations raised $63, 317. This was then matched by TransAlta, meaning $126,665 will be invested back into your community through United Way.

Overall, $1.4 million was raised by TransAlta staff and will be invested back into the communities in which the company operates.

Building community connections

In Western Canada, TransAlta now has 5,308 MW from 44 facilities in five resources (biomass, coal, gas, wind and hydro).