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Citing slowing demand and uncertainty around provincial climate change policies, electricity provider TransAlta said Friday it is delaying its natural gas-fired Sundance 7 power plant until early into the next decade.

The 856-megawatt plant near Lake Wabamun, west of Edmonton, was scheduled to come into service in 2018 and provide enough power for 720,000 homes but the recession in Alberta, with a downturn in the oil and gas industry, has made the need for new generation less pressing, TransAlta chief executive Dawn Farrell said in releasing third-quarter results.

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Provincial regulators this month approved the joint venture TransAlta and Berkshire Hathaway Energy proposed in October 2012.

“The power market is slowing here in Alberta and additional capacity is not needed until somewhere in the 2020 to 2022 time frame,” said Farrell. “Our project can be ready for any one of those years.”