The Seven Sisters Generating Station is a hydroelectric generating station located on the

Winnipeg River Winnipeg River is a Canadian river that flows roughly northwest from Lake of the Woods in the province of Ontario to Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba. This river is long from the Norman Dam in Kenora to its mouth at Lake Winnipeg. Its drainage basin, w ...

, in eastern Manitoba near Seven Sisters Falls, Manitoba. The

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

is called Natalie Lake and is used for recreational boating and fishing. The present

capacity Capacity or capacities may refer to: Mathematics, science, and engineering * Capacity of a container, closely related to the volume of the container * Capacity of a set, in Euclidean space, the total charge a set can hold while maintaining a giv ...

of the generating station is 165 megawatts, and in a typical year the station can produce 990 million

kilowatt-hours A kilowatt-hour ( unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a non-SI unit of energy equal to 3.6 megajoules (MJ) in SI units, which is the energy delivered by one kilowatt of power for one hour. Kilowatt-hours are a commo ...

. It is the largest

generating station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

on the Winnipeg River. Power is transmitted over five 115 kV lines to

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

, and sixth and seventh lines to the

Whiteshell Cowrie or cowry () is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails in the family Cypraeidae. Cowrie shells have held cultural, economic, and ornamental significance in various cultures. The cowrie was the shell most widely used wo ...

and on to

Kenora, Ontario Kenora (), previously named Rat Portage (), is a city situated on the Lake of the Woods in Ontario, Canada, close to the Manitoba boundary, and about east of Winnipeg by road. It is the seat of Kenora District. The history of the name exten ...

. The powerhouse is 128 metres long. The total discharge of water from the station is 1,146 cubic metres per second, with a total drop from forebay to

tailrace A water wheel is a machine for converting the kinetic energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a large wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with numerous blade ...

of 18.6 metres. The station has a 225 metre-long spillway. The forebay nominal elevation is 274.2 metres

AMSL Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level v ...

and the forebay area is 21 square kilometres. The forebay is retained by more than 12 km of dykes.

History

Construction of the station by the Winnipeg Electric Company (now a part of Manitoba Hydro) started in 1929, with first power in 1931, producing 75 megawatts from three vertical turbine-generator units. The second stage of construction began in 1948, when the last three units were installed. The last units were installed in 1952. When first constructed, operating staff lived in the townsite (

Seven Sisters, Manitoba Seven Sisters Falls is a community in the Rural Municipality of Whitemouth, Manitoba. It is the location of Manitoba Hydro's Seven Sisters Generating Station and the Whitemouth Falls Provincial Park. Seven Sisters Falls was named by fur trader ...

), but the plant was automated in the 1970s and put under remote control, requiring a much smaller on-site staff.

References

{{reflist

External links

IEEE Canada History of Seven Sisters Manitoba Historical Society
Hydroelectric power stations in Manitoba Eastman Region, Manitoba

History

See also

References

External links