NIAGARA FALLS, ONT.—Construction is underway to refurbish Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG) reservoir, the largest in Canada, at the Sir Adam Beck Pump Generating Station (PGS) in Niagara Falls, Ont.
The civil construction work includes refurbishing the 750-acre reservoir and installing a partial new liner. With the reservoir now drained, Rankin Construction is repairing the former Portage Road, which remained at the bottom of the reservoir when it was built. The old road will be used during construction to carry materials to the east end of the reservoir where most of the work is being done.
The total investment, including several years of planning to prepare for the project, is about $60 million. The project was announced June 3.
"We are refurbishing the reservoir so that it can operate for another 50 years or more as Canada’s largest and most flexible energy storage facility," says Mike Martelli, OPG’s president, renewable energy and power marketing in a media release. "The value of the PGS is that it uses electricity in off-peak periods to pump water into the reservoir so that the water can be used to generate emission-free power when electricity demand is high."
The OPG’s facilities in Niagara are the province’s largest producer of renewable energy.
Sir Adam Beck I generating station has been in operation since 1921. Sir Adam Beck II generating station opened in 1954. Both stations have been upgraded over the years, and along with the Pump Generating Station have a combined capacity of over 2,100 megawatts of renewable electricity, enough to power 1.7-million homes.
The PGS was built in 1957. Water in the reservoir is used at the pump generating station and again at the Beck station to generate clean electricity. At peak, over 100 workers will be employed on the construction project.
The rehabilitation work is expected to be completed this coming winter.
OPG provides about half the power used in Ontario.
The PGS reservoir is one kilometre wide by about three kilometres long. The PGS can pump 680 cubic metres of water per second into the reservoir. The reservoir will hold 20 million cubic metres of water.
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