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The Sheerness Generating Station, co-owned by TransAlta and ATCO Power, is located northeast of Calgary, Alberta, and is a major employer of residents in the local farming communities surrounding the station. The coal-fired power plant’s two generating units produce approximately 5.5 million megawatt-hours of energy annually.

The station relies on Sheerness Mine, a nearby coal mine. A key factor in providing coal for the station is the mine’s BE1300 electric dragline excavator, which runs 24 hours per day at a cost of thousands of dollars per hour.

The dragline bucket is operated using hoist and drag cables. Each cable system has a drum, driven through a gearbox by two motors, and each of the four motors uses traditional drum/clamshell braking systems.