The last of seven units have been placed in service at the Keeyask Generation Project in Canada’s newest hydroelectric power station. This is a major milestone for the project and the Bechtel-led team with Barnard Construction Company and EllisDon. Located in Manitoba, Canada, the project is a critical component to supply 4,400 gigawatt hours each year of clean, safe, and reliable energy, enough electricity to power approximately 400,000 homes. The project consists of a seven-unit powerhouse separated from a seven-gate spillway on the south side of Gull Rapids, all connected by three dams across the rapids. There are 23 km of dykes on the north and south side, with a total reservoir area of approximately 93 square km.The power station was designed to harness the energy from the river with a per-cubic-metres-per-second volume twice that of Niagara Falls, at a project site located 10 degrees south of the Arctic Circle. Winter temperatures in the region could dip to below minus 40 degree Celsius. Execution of the project was made possible by its committed team, including over 9,000 construction workers over the life of the project, and by employing innovative logistics measures and tools, including placing extreme-cold-weather concrete during the winter months. All sand, rock, and clay needed for the job was mined on site, including for the 334,000 cubic meters of concrete needed for the spillway and powerhouse structures.The Keeyask Generation project is a collaborative effort undertaken by the Keeyask Hydropower Limited Partnership - a partnership between Manitoba Hydro and the Keeyask Cree Nations, a partnership of four First Nations: Tataskweyak Cree Nation, War Lake First Nation; York Factory First Nation, and Fox Lake Cree Nation. The generating station is located on the Nelson River approximately 30 kilometres west of Gillam, in the Split Lake Resource Management Area and within the ancestral homeland of the four partner First Nations.
The last of seven units have been placed in service at the Keeyask Generation Project in Canada’s newest hydroelectric power station. This is a major milestone for the project and the Bechtel-led team with Barnard Construction Company and EllisDon. Located in Manitoba, Canada, the project is a critical component to supply 4,400 gigawatt hours each year of clean, safe, and reliable energy, enough electricity to power approximately 400,000 homes. The project consists of a seven-unit powerhouse separated from a seven-gate spillway on the south side of Gull Rapids, all connected by three dams across the rapids. There are 23 km of dykes on the north and south side, with a total reservoir area of approximately 93 square km.The power station was designed to harness the energy from the river with a per-cubic-metres-per-second volume twice that of Niagara Falls, at a project site located 10 degrees south of the Arctic Circle. Winter temperatures in the region could dip to below minus 40 degree Celsius. Execution of the project was made possible by its committed team, including over 9,000 construction workers over the life of the project, and by employing innovative logistics measures and tools, including placing extreme-cold-weather concrete during the winter months. All sand, rock, and clay needed for the job was mined on site, including for the 334,000 cubic meters of concrete needed for the spillway and powerhouse structures.The Keeyask Generation project is a collaborative effort undertaken by the Keeyask Hydropower Limited Partnership - a partnership between Manitoba Hydro and the Keeyask Cree Nations, a partnership of four First Nations: Tataskweyak Cree Nation, War Lake First Nation; York Factory First Nation, and Fox Lake Cree Nation. The generating station is located on the Nelson River approximately 30 kilometres west of Gillam, in the Split Lake Resource Management Area and within the ancestral homeland of the four partner First Nations.
