Beauharnois hydroelectric power station
| Beauharnois hydroelectric power station | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 |
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| location | |||
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| Coordinates | 45 ° 18 ′ 51 " N , 73 ° 54 ′ 29" W | ||
| country | Canada | ||
| Waters | Saint Lawrence River | ||
| Data | |||
| Type | Run-of-river power plant | ||
| Primary energy | Hydropower | ||
| power | 1911 MW | ||
| owner | Hydro Quebec | ||
| Project start | 1929 | ||
| Start of operations | 1932-1961 | ||
The Beauharnois hydropower plant (in French, Centrale de Beauharnois ) is an important run-of-river power plant in the Canadian province of Québec . It is located on the Saint Lawrence River near the city of Beauharnois , around 40 km southwest of Montreal in the Montérégie region . The power plant was built in three phases between 1929 and 1961. It has 38 turbines , which generators a performance of a total of 1911 MW produce; the height of fall is 24.39 meters. The power plant is operated by the state-owned energy supply company Hydro-Québec . In 1990 the power plant was declared a National Historic Site .
history
The town of Beauharnois and the hydroelectric power station are named after Charles de la Boische, Marquis de Beauharnois , the governor of New France from 1726 to 1747. Since the early 20th century, three hydroelectric power stations have used the 24-meter difference in altitude between the lakes Lac Saint-François and Lac Saint-Louis located rapids. In 1901, Provincial Light, Heat and Power built a power station that had a capacity of 10 MW and which had to be demolished in 1930 after a fire. The Saint-Timothée power station of the Canadian Light and Power Company (15 MW) was built between 1906 and 1911 and was shut down in 1949. The Les Cèdres hydropower plant (135 MW), which was built in 1914 as a joint venture by Montreal Light, Heat and Power (MLH & P) and the Shawinigan Water and Power Company , is still in operation today .
On October 12, 1929, Robert Oliver Sweezey's Beauharnois Light, Heat and Power Company began building a hydroelectric project that was gigantic for the time. The inlet canal alone was 24 kilometers long, up to one kilometer wide and an average of ten meters deep. The Beauharnois hydropower plant was supposed to deliver electricity not only to Montreal, but also to Ontario . The first construction phase with six turbines went into operation in 1932.
But this event was overshadowed by a bribery scandal that had been uncovered in June 1931. In order to obtain the building permit for the inlet canal, the company had transferred $ 700,000 to two senators from the Liberal Party of Canada . This money was used in the election campaign before the general election in 1930 . Senators Wilfrid Laurier McDougald and Andrew Haydon had to resign as a result of the scandal. Sweeney in turn came to the brink of bankruptcy in 1933 and was forced to sell his company to MLH & P.
This scandal prompted numerous politicians in the province of Québec to work hard to break up the electricity trust, which was perceived as corrupt, and to bring the electricity industry under the control of the state. This finally succeeded in 1944 with the takeover of MLH & P by Hydro-Québec . The new owner realized the second stage of the power plant between 1953 and 1953. A few years later, Hydro-Québec took the construction of the neighboring St. Lawrence Seaway as an opportunity to implement the third stage, which went into operation in 1961. The power at that time was 1574 MW.
In 1994 Hydro-Québec began an extensive program to renovate and modernize the power station and the dams on the Saint Lawrence River. In addition, the Art Deco power station building was renovated in keeping with the style. The total cost is estimated at around $ 1.5 billion. In 2008 the capacity finally reached a value of 1903 MW. Even today, Beauharnois is the fifth largest power plant owned by Hydro-Québec, and it continues to be one of the largest run-of-river power plants in the world.
literature
- Ian McNaughton: Beauharnois . Ed .: Hydro-Québec. Montreal 1970.
- Theodore David Regehr: The Beauharnois scandal: A story of Canadian entrepreneurship and politics . University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1990, ISBN 978-0-8020-2629-3 .
Web links
- Visitor information (French)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Centrales hydroélectriques. Hydro-Québec , December 31, 2010, accessed March 9, 2012 (French).
- ^ Lieu historique national du Canada de la Centrale-Hydro-Électrique-de-Beauharnois. (No longer available online.) In: Répertoire des désignations d'importance historique nationale au Canada. Parks Canada , February 22, 2005, formerly in the original ; Retrieved March 9, 2012 (French). ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Beauharnois. Commission de toponymie du Québec, accessed March 9, 2012 (French).
- ^ Ian McNaughton: Beauharnois . P. 15.
- ↑ Puissance et élégance: La centrale de Beauharnois. (No longer available online.) In: Histoire de l'électricité au Québec. Hydro-Québec, archived from the original on September 20, 2012 ; Retrieved March 9, 2012 (French).
- ^ Theodore David Regehr: The Beauharnois scandal. Pp. 117-119.
- ^ Ian McNaughton: Beauharnois . P. 35.
