The Toulnustouc generating station (), is a hydroelectric power generating station managed by

Hydro-Québec Hydro-Québec () is a Canadian Crown corporations of Canada#Quebec, Crown corporation public utility headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. It manages the electricity generation, generation, electric power transmission, transmission and electricity ...

on the

Toulnustouc River The Toulnustouc River () is a tributary of the Manicouagan River in Rivière-aux-Outardes, Côte-Nord, Quebec, Canada. It is dammed to form Lake Sainte-Anne, which regulates water supply to the huge hydroelectric plants near the mouth of the Mani ...

in the territory of

Côte-Nord Côte-Nord (Region 09) (, ; ) is an List of regions of Quebec, administrative region of Quebec, on the Quebec-Labrador peninsula, Quebec-Labrador Peninsula, Canada. The region runs along the St. Lawrence River and then the Gulf of St. Lawrence, ...

, Quebec, Canada. It has an installed capacity of 526 MW. The power station is fed by water from a dam and dyke that contain the Lake-Sainte-Anne reservoir.

Project

A dam and dyke were built to enlarge the existing Lake-Sainte-Anne reservoir for the use by the Toulnustouc hydroelectric project. RSW of Montreal was selected as the prime consulting engineers. VINCI Construction Grands Projets undertook construction. The new dam and dyke are about downstream of the former Lac-Sainte-Anne dam, and added to the reservoir. The development was carried out in partnership with the

Pessamit Pessamit (formerly Betsiamites, or Bersimis), is a First Nations reserve and Innu community in the Canadian province of Quebec, located about southwest from Baie-Comeau along the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River at the mouth of the Betsi ...

Council and the

Manicouagan Regional County Municipality Manicouagan () is a regional county municipality in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, Canada. It is located on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River with its seat in Baie-Comeau. It was created in 1981, and named after the Manicouagan River. ...

. Work started in November 2001, and for the next four years the project employed 425 people on average, peaking at 1,200 workers in the summer of 2003. The average worker was aged over 50. Total cost was over CDN$800 million. The reservoir started to fill on 10 February 2005 and reached its maximum operating level on 29 April 2005. The plant entered service four months ahead of schedule on 1 July 2005. The Toulnustouc hydroelectric plant was officially inaugurated on 18 August 2005 by Quebec Premier

Jean Charest John James "Jean" Charest (; born June 24, 1958) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 29th premier of Quebec from 2003 to 2012. Prior to that, he was a member of Parliament (MP) between 1984 and 1998. After holding se ...

and Thierry Vandal, CEO of Hydro-Québec.

Dam

The dam is high, with an effective height of and length of . A

spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure tha ...

with a capacity of is used to release excess inflow and to maintain a flow of at least in the river downstream from the dam. The dam structure is concrete face rockfill using materials from the spillway excavations, with impermeability provided by the concrete face slab. This was an innovative choice for the Nordic environment with its large temperature variations and ice loads in winter. Submersible tiltmeters were installed along two cross-sectional lines on the dam and the south dike to measure slab deflection so that Hydro-Québec could confirm that any structural movement was within the acceptable range. Leakage is very low, at around .

Dyke and supply tunnel

The south dyke is in a valley about southwest of the main dam, and holds back the reservoir in that area. The dyke is high. A tunnel from the end of the south dyke carries water to the hydroelectric plant, which is just below PK55 on the river. The supply tunnel is long.

Plant

The Toulnustouc generating station is on the

in the Manicouagan watershed. It has an installed capacity of 526 MW from two generating units. The

hydraulic head Hydraulic head or piezometric head is a measurement related to liquid pressure (normalized by specific weight) and the liquid elevation above a vertical datum., 410 pages. See pp. 43–44., 650 pages. See p. 22, eq.3.2a. It is usually meas ...

is . The plant produces 2,660 GW/h annually. The discharge channel to the river is long, and required excavation of of

overburden In mining, overburden (also called waste or spoil) is the material that lies above an area that lends itself to economical exploitation, such as the rock, soil, and ecosystem that lies above a coal seam or ore body. Overburden is distinct from tai ...

and of rock. A

geomembrane A geomembrane is very low permeability synthetic membrane liner or barrier used with any geotechnical engineering related material so as to control fluid (liquid or gas) migration in a human-made project, structure, or system. Geomembranes are m ...

covered by of stone stabilizes the slopes and bottom of the discharge channel.

Notes

Sources

* * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Toulnustouc generating station Hydroelectric power stations in Quebec Buildings and structures in Côte-Nord 2005 establishments in Quebec Dams completed in 2005 Hydro-Québec