TC Energy Hands Worley the Next Phase of 11GWh Meaford Plan
TC Energy has picked Worley to take its 1GW/11GWh Ontario Pumped Storage Project at Meaford into its next development phase, an 11-hour duration asset aimed at Ontario's grid.
TC Energy has selected engineering firm Worley to advance the next development phase of its 1GW/11GWh Ontario Pumped Storage Project at Meaford, Ontario.
TC Energy has appointed engineering and project delivery firm Worley to carry the next development phase of its Ontario Pumped Storage Project, the 1GW/11GWh pumped hydro scheme planned at Meaford, Ontario. The Canadian pipeline and energy infrastructure company disclosed the selection this week, keeping alive one of the largest single long-duration storage proposals anywhere in North America.
The numbers matter more than the contract. A plant rated at 1GW of power with 11GWh of usable energy can, on an illustrative basis, run at full output for roughly 11 hours before it needs to refill — a duration profile no lithium-ion battery installation in Canada comes close to matching at that scale. Grid planners call that “long-duration storage”: enough to shift energy across an entire evening peak, or to hold a nuclear or wind surplus overnight and give it back the next afternoon.
What the Worley appointment actually buys
Appointing an owner’s engineer or development partner is the step that turns a concept into a costed, permittable design. It is where geotechnical work, reservoir and tunnel layout, interconnection studies, water intake design and construction sequencing get pinned down tightly enough that a board can eventually be asked for a final investment decision. TC Energy has not published a construction start date, capital cost or in-service year in connection with the appointment, and none should be inferred from it.
What the move does signal is intent. Development spending on a project of this scale is not trivial, but it is a fraction of construction capital, and companies do not commission this kind of engineering work on assets they are quietly shelving. As reported by Energy Storage News, Worley has been selected specifically to advance the next development phase — the language of progression, not of a holding pattern.
Why Ontario is the site of the argument
Ontario is an unusual grid. It leans heavily on nuclear baseload, which does not like to ramp, and it has a large refurbishment programme running through the province’s fleet. That combination produces exactly the problem pumped hydro was invented to solve: too much generation at the wrong hour and not enough at the right one. Storage that can absorb overnight surplus and discharge into the following day’s peak is worth more on a system like that than on one dominated by flexible gas.
Meaford sits on Georgian Bay, which is the geographic point of the project: pumped hydro needs a large lower reservoir and elevation above it. The site’s federal land status has kept the proposal politically visible in a way that most storage projects never are. Local opposition and questions about land use have followed the scheme since it was first floated, and any development phase from here runs in parallel with environmental assessment and Indigenous consultation obligations rather than after them.
Where this fits in TC Energy’s capital story
TC Energy (ticker: TRP) is best known as a mover of molecules — natural gas and liquids pipelines — not electrons. A gigawatt-scale storage asset is a different business: no commodity throughput risk, no shipper contracts, but a revenue model that depends on either a capacity contract with the system operator or the spread between cheap off-peak and expensive on-peak power. For a company that sells stability of cash flow to income investors, a long-dated Ontario storage asset with a regulated or contracted revenue line is conceptually a good fit. Getting to that contract is the hard part.
TC Energy (ticker: TRP) is best known as a mover of molecules — natural gas and liquids pipelines — not electrons.
The market barely blinked. TRP changed hands at 62.34 in the licensed market data as of 18:56 GMT on 25 August 2026, up 0.45% on the day, inside a session range of 61.61 to 62.52 and against a prior close of 62.06. That is a stock trading on its pipeline earnings and its dividend, not on an engineering appointment for a project without a sanction date. For context, the broad tape was modestly firmer at the same time: the S&P 500 tracker SPY at $765.75 (+0.30%), the Nasdaq 100’s QQQ at $710.39 (+0.58%) and the Dow tracker DIA at $535.22 (+0.29%).
Pumped hydro’s awkward position against batteries
The storage industry has spent the past several years being reshaped by lithium-ion, whose costs fell fast and whose build times are measured in quarters. Pumped hydro’s build times are measured in years, sometimes a decade, and its permitting risk is concentrated in exactly the places batteries avoid: water, land, blasting, fish, and neighbours. What pumped hydro still owns is duration and asset life. A battery farm sized for two or four hours cannot do what an 11-hour reservoir does, and it will be replaced long before the civil works of a pumped storage plant are worn out.
That is the trade being tested at Meaford. If Ontario decides it needs multi-hour, multi-decade storage rather than more short-duration batteries, a project like this becomes strategically hard to replace. If the province’s procurement continues to favour speed and modularity, the economics get harder to defend, because the capital is spent up front and the revenue arrives over generations.
What to watch from here
- A cost estimate. The single most important disclosure still outstanding. Development engineering exists partly to produce one, and its size will determine whether the project needs a contracted revenue floor to proceed.
- Provincial procurement signals. Any Ontario mechanism that pays explicitly for long-duration capacity would change the project’s risk profile more than any engineering milestone.
- Permitting and consultation progress. Environmental assessment steps and agreements with local and Indigenous communities are gating items, not paperwork to be caught up later.
- TC Energy’s capital allocation language. Watch whether the project starts appearing in the company’s secured or sanctioned project lists, versus remaining in development.
For now, the substance is narrow and worth stating plainly: a 1GW/11GWh project at Meaford has an engineering partner and a next phase to work through. Everything that would let an investor underwrite it — cost, schedule, revenue contract — remains to be published.
Key facts
- Project: Ontario Pumped Storage Project, Meaford, Canada — 1GW / 11GWh
- Appointment: Worley selected to advance the next development phase
- TRP price: 62.34, +0.45% on the day, as of 18:56 GMT on 25 Aug 2026
- Illustrative duration: About 11 hours at full 1GW output (11GWh ÷ 1GW)
Frequently asked questions
What did TC Energy announce?
TC Energy, a Canadian pipeline and energy infrastructure company, has selected the engineering and project delivery firm Worley to advance the next development phase of its Ontario Pumped Storage Project at Meaford, Canada. The project is sized at 1GW of power capacity and 11GWh of energy storage capacity. No construction date or capital cost was disclosed with the appointment.
How long can an 11GWh project run?
On an illustrative basis, dividing 11GWh of energy by 1GW of power output gives roughly 11 hours of discharge at full rated capacity. That is what the industry calls long-duration storage — long enough to cover an entire evening demand peak, and far beyond the two- to four-hour duration typical of grid-scale lithium-ion battery projects.
How is pumped hydro storage different from a battery farm?
Pumped hydro moves water between an upper and lower reservoir, pumping when power is cheap and releasing it through turbines when power is expensive. It offers very long duration and multi-decade asset life, but requires major civil works, water access and years of permitting. Batteries are faster to build and modular, but typically store only a few hours of energy.
Did TC Energy’s share price react?
Not materially. TRP traded at 62.34 as of 18:56 GMT on 25 August 2026, up 0.45% on the day from a prior close of 62.06, within a session range of 61.61 to 62.52. That is broadly in line with a modestly higher overall market and reflects a stock priced on pipeline earnings rather than an unsanctioned development project.
Has the Meaford project been approved for construction?
No. The appointment of Worley covers the next development phase, which typically means design, engineering and permitting work rather than construction. A final investment decision, a published capital cost and a revenue arrangement with the province or system operator would all normally be needed before construction could begin.
Why does Ontario want long-duration storage?
Ontario’s grid relies heavily on nuclear baseload generation, which does not ramp up and down easily, and is working through a large fleet refurbishment programme. Storage that can absorb surplus overnight generation and discharge it into the following day’s demand peak is more valuable on such a system than on grids dominated by flexible gas plants.
Sources
- TC Energy appoints Worley to advance development of 11GWh Ontario pumped hydro energy storage project — Energy Storage News
Photo: Donovan Kelly · Pexels Licence — source
