"The commissioning went smoothly . . . no complications. . . . We are currently feeding the (provincial energy) grid," said Deluzio.

He expects a further 11 units on the circuit to be energized today and all 66 units, on four circuits, within two to three weeks.

"We're nicely ahead of schedule," said Deluzio of the Prince Wind Energy Project.

"We had previously promised to be delivering (all 66 units) to the grid by no later than Sept. 30."

All 66 massive turbines, each about the size of a football field, from base to furthest blade sweep, and with a capacity for 1.5 megawatts of generation, have been erected in recent months.

The opening phase of the development involves the installation of 66, 177-metre (383 foot) towers at a cost of $198 million, including infrastructure, to generate 99 MW of energy.

The second phase, which Brookfield expects to have operational in the fourth quarter of this year, includes a further 60 towers generating 90 MW at a cost of $180 million.

The 189 MW of energy the site will generate when fully operational will be enough to power 40,000 homes.

Wind tower components, which began being trucked through the community nearly three months ago, will continue arriving until the end of September.

It takes as many as eight transports to bring each 210 metric tonne tower, and its components, to the project site.

An attempt at bringing components to the Sault by rail was abandoned in mid-June when a Huron-Central Railway freight train loaded with 18 'nacelles,' which house the turbine's generator and gearbox, derailed at Webbwood, near Espanola.

A dozen of the nacelles, en route from Florida on the maiden rail journey, were severely damaged in the derailment but the mishap caused minimal disruption to the project time table, said Deluzio.

All the wind-tower foundations have been poured for the second phase of the development, but no complete towers have yet been erected.

Construction crews, with the assistance of a couple of massive cranes, can erect eight towers a week.

The Ministry of Energy awarded a long-term supply agreement to Brookfield Power, then Brascan Power Corp., nearly 21 months ago to supply renewable energy to the grid.