SaskPower is now the sole owner of the Cory cogeneration Station near Saskatoon.

The province's Crown corporation had been a half-owner but bought the remaining 50 per cent from its Atco Ltd.partner for $120 million on Monday.

The deal was part of a larger sale by Canadian Utilities Ltd. (CUL), which is 52 per cent owned by holding company Atco.

CUL struck a deal to sell its entire Canadian fossil fuel-based electricity generation portfolio for about $835 million.

Heartland Generation Ltd., an affiliate of American investment firm Energy Capital Partners, agreed to buy 11 partly or fully owned CUL natural gas-fired and coal-fired power plants with a total of 2,100 megawatts of capacity. Nine of the plants are in Alberta and one each is in British Columbia and Ontario.

CUL sold its 50 per cent stake in the Cory cogeneration Station to SaskPower International, after it enacted its right to buy ahead of Heartland. The cogeneration station, located near the Cory Nutrien potash mine, is a natural gas-fired facility that generates 250 megawatts, or enough to power about 250,000 households.

SaskPower now is the sole owner of the Cory Cogeneration Station near Saskatoon. (CBC)

Howard Matthews, SaskPower's vice-president of power production and CEO of SaskPower International, said having already owned half of the plant, they know exactly what they are buying.

"We have a really good understanding of how well that facility has been operated and maintained," Matthews said.

"It's not like buying a used car that you have no history on. We have the total history on this plant, how it has been operated and maintained.

"This gives us a good opportunity to secure the supply going forward, but also so the profits that come out of the facility stay here in Saskatchewan. [We can] look at reinvesting that money here in Saskatchewan rather than [see it] leave the province."

Under the existing contract, SaskPower paid Atco about $20 million per year for the electricity generated from the facility.

The Crown now avoids paying that expense, and expects to receive a payback, net of operating expenses, within 10 years.

Howard Matthews, CEO of SaskPower International, said all of the profits from the facility will now stay in Saskatchewan. (Kirk Fraser/CBC)

The facility has 10 employees: six Atco employees and four SaskPower workers.

All of the Atco workers have been asked to stay on at the station.

The cogeneration station has two natural gas-fuelled turbine generators and a steam turbine generator.

Besides producing electricity the facility sells steam to Nutrien for use in its mining operations.

Matthews said the cogeneration plant is efficient and has a smaller environmental footprint when it comes to CO2 emissions.

with CP files