Niagara Falls: Ontario Power Generation announced June 10 that it would be refurbishing its reservoir at the Sir Adam Beck Pump Generating Station (PGS). The facility, which is the largest in Canada, can hold the equivalent of 8,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water.
“We are refurbishing the reservoir so 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 Generation and Power Marketing. “The value of the PGS is that it uses electricity in off-peak periods to pump water into the reservoir so the water can be used to generate emission-free power when electricity demand is high.”
The total investment, including several years of planning to prepare for the project, is about $60 million. The rehabilitation work is expected to be completed this coming winter.
Sir Adam Beck I generating station has served Ontario since 1921. Sir Adam Beck II generating station opened in 1954. Both stations have been upgraded over the years, and along with the PGS have a combined capacity of over 2,100 MW of clean renewable electricity. That’s enough to power 1.7 million homes.
Built in 1957, the PGS can displace up to 600MW of fossil fuel generation for up to eight hours. It can pump 680 thousand litres of water per second and store the same energy as 100,000 electric car batteries. Water in the reservoir is used at the PGS and again at the Beck station to generate clean electricity.
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.