Some commentators have accused Hydro-Québec of unnecessarily operating the Tracy thermal plant to export electricity by taking advantage of low fuel prices at certain times.

The power station is located in the former town of Tracy on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River, 75 km (45 mi) north-east of Montreal, Quebec.

The plant has been built on a 50.6-hectare (125 acres) lot, crossed by Quebec Route 132 (Marie-Victorin Road) and a Canadian National railroad track 6.5 km (4 mi) upstream from downtown Sorel-Tracy.

[4] Quebec utilities were faced with rapid demand growth in the decade that followed the end of World War II, as electricity consumption doubled in the Montreal area served by government-owned Hydro-Québec.

The company initiated an ambitious construction program, building the Bersimis-1, Bersimis-2, Carillon and the third phase of the Beauharnois generating stations to keep up.

[5] After commissioning the Beaumont generating station in 1958, the Shawinigan Water & Power Company had exhausted most of its potential for the significant expansion of hydropower on the Saint-Maurice River and turned to Hydro-Québec to secure additional supplies.

[8] It was slated to burn residual fuel oil, a by-product of a petrochemical plant to be built in nearby Varennes by a subsidiary, Shawinigan Chemicals Limited.

The Tracy project, and the planned development of a hydroelectric power station on the Upper Saint-Maurice at Rapide des Coeurs, remained dormant for a while as Quebec was a few months away from a provincial election.

[14] The first two units were completed after Hydro-Québec's hostile takeover of SW&P and every other investor-owned public utility in the province, as part of Quebec's nationalization of electricity policy.

[13] In a booklet published by the public relations branch of Hydro-Québec in August 1965, shortly after the commissioning of the second unit, the utility explains its decision to upgrade the plant by "the urgent need to ensure extra capacity now and the advisability of creating an adequate reserve for future operations", adding that the role of the plant would change over its operating life.

Burning fuel vaporize water and the steam expands to drive a turbine that spins the rotor of an alternator to generate electricity.

It was also sporadically operated as a base load power plant between 1989 and 1991, in 1998 and in 2003–2004[36] to mitigate low water conditions in the company's reservoirs.

[39] In 1992, Hydro-Québec announced a C$300 million refurbishment program to upgrade the boilers to burn natural gas or heavy fuel oil by 1995.

[43] In July, the utility signed a one-year contract with the Ultramar refinery in Lévis for heavy fuel oil deliveries at $C13 per barrel, a price "never seen before", according to the company's CEO, André Caillé.

[45][46] After being idle for two years to complete repairs, the plant was run at capacity for 5 weeks, from June 14 to July 23, 2001, to take advantage of high prices on neighbouring electricity markets and cheap fuel[47] and generated close to 200 GWh.

[51] The year-round use of the thermal power station fostered a strong discontent among people living nearby, who began registering complaints with the company and their elected officials.

"[52] After meeting a delegation of Sorel-Tracy citizens led by mayor Marcel Robert on March 29, 2004, company officials pledged to stop operating the plant past May 31, 2004, and limit its future use to peak periods only.

[57] During the last 30 years of its operational life, the Tracy thermal generating station was faced with increasingly more stringent environmental rules.

[63] A new air quality regulation passed in 2011 lowered the NOx cap to 2,100 tonnes per year[64] and required the power station to be equipped with a selective catalytic reduction system, a C$75 million investment according to a 2010 economic assessment prepared by the Quebec Department of Sustainable Development, Environment and Wildlife.

EDS will be in charge of decommissioning and dismantling the plant, including asbestos removal, tearing down the structures and selling reusable assets.

At the end of 2011, the Société des traversiers du Québec expressed an interest in moving its Sorel ferry terminal at Bassin Kaskiaik to near the power station as a way to increase traffic.