Manitoba Hydro
Encyclopedia
Manitoba Hydro is the electric power and natural gas utility
in the province of Manitoba
, Canada
. Founded in 1961, it is a provincial Crown Corporation, governed by the Manitoba Hydro-Electric Board and the Manitoba Hydro Act. Today the company operates 15 interconnected generating stations. It has more than 527,000 electric power customers and more than 263,000 natural gas
customers. Since most of the electrical energy is provided by hydroelectric power, the utility has low electricity rates. Stations in Northern Manitoba are connected by a HVDC
system, the Nelson River Bipole
, to customers in the south. The internal staff are members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees
Local 998 while the outside workers are members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Local 2034.
Manitoba Hydro headquarters in the downtown Winnipeg
Manitoba Hydro Place officially opened in 2009.
.
The first public electric lighting installation in Manitoba was demonstrated at the Davis House hotel on Main Street, Winnipeg
, March 12, 1873. In 1880, the Manitoba Electric and Gas Light Company was incorporated to provide public lighting and power, and a year later absorbed the Winnipeg Gas Company. In 1893, the Winnipeg Electric Street Railway Company was formed, and initially purchased power from Manitoba Electric and Gas, but by 1898, it had built its own 1000-horsepower
(750 kW) generating plant and purchased Manitoba Electric and Gas.
The first hydroelectric plant in Manitoba operated north of Brandon
from 1901 to 1924. A 261-foot (80 m) earth-fill dam was constructed across the Minnedosa River (now known as the Little Saskatchewan River
) about a kilometer from its junction with the Assiniboine River
by private investors. The plant only operated part of the year, with the load carried in the winter months by steam generators
. An 11-kV wood-pole transmission line connected the station with the town of Brandon, Manitoba. The dam washed out in 1948 but remains are still visible. A second plant was built by private investors near Minnedosa
in 1912 but low water levels meant that it only operated intermittently. In 1920 the plant was replaced by a diesel station owned by the Manitoba Power Commission. The dam still exists today at Minnedosa Lake.
By 1906, Winnipeg Electric Street Railway had constructed a hydroelectric plant on the Winnipeg River near Pinawa
, and seventy miles (100 km) of 60-kV transmission line. This plant operated year-round until 1951, when it was shut down to allow improved water flow to other Winnipeg River stations. Its remains are still preserved as a Provincial park http://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/parks/popular_parks/pinawa_dam/info.html.
Since the investor-owned Winnipeg Electric Street Railway was charging twenty cents per kilowatt-hour, the City of Winnipeg founded its own utility in 1906,
and developed a generating station at Pointe du Bois on the Winnipeg River (which still operates). In reaction to this, Winnipeg Electric Street Railway dropped prices to ten cents per kilowatt-hour, but the City-owned utility (Winnipeg Hydro) set a price of 3.5 cents per kilowatt-hour which held for many decades.
In 1916, the Province established the Manitoba Power Commission with the object of bringing electric power to communities outside of Winnipeg.
Winnipeg Hydro, Winnipeg Electric Street Railway Company and the Manitoba Hydro Commission all built extensive hydroelectric generating facilities on the Winnipeg River during the period 1916 through 1928. The Great Depression
starting in 1929 put an end to rapid growth until after World War II
. The City of Winnipeg utility built coal-fired steam generators in 1924 on Amy Street, which were also used for district heating
of downtown buildings. During World War Two, electric boilers at Amy Street used surplus hydroelectric power to economize on coal consumption. The City utility also implemented load management on electric water heaters, which allowed them to be turned off during the day and during peak load periods.
In 1949 the Province set up a new utility, the Manitoba Hydro Electric Board (MHEB). In 1953 the MHEB acquired the assets of the Winnipeg Electric Street Railway. The MHEB was tasked with bringing electric power to the rural parts
of Manitoba, a task which took until around 1956 to substantially complete.
By 1955 there were three utilities in the province:
Two thermal (coal-fired)
stations were built at Brandon and Selkirk starting in 1958. These units were intended to operate during low-water years, and burned lignite
coal
.
In 1957, the first transmission line between Manitoba and North-West Ontario was installed. In 1960, a 138-kV connection to Saskatchewan Power Corporation was completed, and it was later uprated to 230 kV.
, which had been served up to that point by a cross-border tie to the Otter Tail Power system at Noyes
. The last of the private mine-owned utility systems at Flin Flon
was purchased by Manitoba Hydro in 1973. The early 1970s also marked the installation of tie lines between Manitoba Hydro and utilities in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Minnesota. The interconnection with the American utilities (Otter Tail Power, Northern States Power, and Minkota Power Co-Operative) were used to obtain firm power of 90 MW for the winter of 1970; and since that time these interconnections have also been used for export of energy.
In the period 1974 to 1976, Manitoba Hydro was still studying nuclear power
, but it concluded that all hydraulic resources should be developed first before construction of any nuclear facility. Although two research nuclear reactors existed at the Pinawa AECL
research facility, no nuclear generating capacity has ever been constructed in Manitoba.
In July 1999, Manitoba Hydro purchased the natural gas distribution company Centra Gas Manitoba. In September 2002, Manitoba Hydro purchased Winnipeg Hydro
, which formerly provided electric power in the downtown
area of Winnipeg
.
of potential generation capacity was identified at 11 sites - at a time when the developed hydropower in the rest of Canada was around 1 million horsepower. Between 1955 and 1960, studies were carried out to determine what resources would be available for future hydraulic generation. The stations at Kelsey, Kettle, Long Spruce and Limestone were built on the lower Nelson River to support both Manitoba load growth and export plans. Limestone, the largest generating station in Manitoba, is located on the Lower Nelson only 90 km from Hudson Bay
. Long-term firm power sales contracts were signed with Northern States Power
of Minneapolis. Control dams have turned Lake Winnipeg
, the 12th largest lake in the world, into a 25,000 km² reservoir for the Nelson River generation system.
The great distance between generating sites on the Nelson River and load centers in southern Manitoba required the use of HVDC transmission lines to bring the energy to market. When these lines were commissioned, they were the longest and highest-voltage direct current lines in the world. The Dorsey converter station is 26 km north-west of the center of Winnipeg.
was built near St. Leon, Manitoba. Power generated by this privately constructed plant is purchased by Manitoba Hydro for distribution on its network. The capacity of this installation is 99.9 MW, comprising 63 wind turbine
s of 1.65 MW each. This is the first privately owned grid-connected generation to be constructed in Manitoba in nearly fifty years. Energy produced by this facility is subsidized by the Canadian Government's
Wind Power Production Incentive
, though over the life of the project tax revenue will exceed the value of the initial subsidy.
Multiple wind farm sites with capacities between 50 and 200 MW have been studied for Manitoba. The Manitoba OASIS
node has generator interconnection evaluation studies for wind farms at Elie, Lena, Darlingford, Boissevain, Killarney, and Minnedosa. Additional probable wind farm sites of up to 200 MW are in the generation queue on the OASIS for St. Leon, St. Laurent, Letellier, Waskada,Alexander, Lizard Lake, Lk. Manitoba Narrows and other locations.http://oasis.midwestiso.org/documents/Mheb/queue.html
Since 1970, a Minister responsible for the Manitoba Hydro Act has sat on Executive Council of Manitoba
. This position is not a full departmental portfolio in the Manitoba executive council, and it is generally held by ministers who also hold other cabinet responsibilities. The current minister, Gregory Selinger
, is also the Minister of Finance.
Generating station total ratings are approximate. Water flow conditions and station service load may account for some of the difference between rated station output and total unit nameplate rating. In a typical year the hydroelectric plants produce more than ninety-five percent of the energy sold.
Distribution voltages include 4160 V especially in urban Winnipeg, 12.47 kV and 25 kV, usually on overhead conductors but often in buried cables. Total length of distribution lines is over 80,000 km.
Transmission lines built in Manitoba must withstand a wide temperature range, ice, and occasional high winds. In 1997, a tornado
blew down 19 transmission towers of the HVDC system north of Winnipeg, reducing transmission capacity from the North to a small fraction of system capacity. During the several days required for utility employees to repair this line, power was imported from the United States over the 500 kV interconnection. As a consequence, though some major industrial customers were requested to curtail energy use, disruption for most customers remained small.
system. The two transmission lines, each nearly 900 km long, operate at +/- 450 kV and +/- 500 kV DC, with converter stations at Gillam
and Sundance
, and the inverter station, Dorsey, near Rosser
. The combined capacity of the two HVDC lines is 3420 MW, or about 68% of the total generation capacity in the province.
, Ontario
, North Dakota
and Minnesota
. Ties to the Canadian provinces are of low capacity but a substantial portion of Manitoba Hydro's annual generation can be exported over the tie to Minnesota. In 2003, a new line was completed to the United States (the Harvey-Glenboro 230kV line), allowing a firm export capacity of 700 megawatts. In 2005 Manitoba Hydro announced increased interchange up to 500 MW with Ontario, after construction of additional transmission facilities. Manitoba Hydro's largest interconnection is the Dorsey-Forbes-Chisago 500,000 volt (AC) line that begins at the Dorsey substation located in Rosser
near Winnipeg and travels south into the United States
and takes a southeasterly direction to the Forbes Substation northwest of Duluth, Minnesota
and from there goes south to the Chisago substation located just north of St. Paul, Minnesota.
Manitoba Hydro also participates in "border accommodation" transfers, where it provides power to isolated extraprovincial end-use loads such as those of the Northwest Angle
in Minnesota.
Manitoba Hydro is a member of the MRO Midwest Reliability Organization
, a region of the North American Electrical Reliability Council NERC
and successor to MAPP (Mid-continent Area Power Pool) since June 15, 2004. Manitoba Hydro continues its membership in MAPP, which retains its function as a generation reserves sharing pool.
Export of electrical energy has been regulated since 1907 in Canada. Since 1959, the National Energy Board
licences exports, based on the criteria that the exports are surplus to domestic need and that the price charged is reasonable and in the Canadian public interest. Similarly, exporters of power from the United States into Canada require a United States Export Authorization.
on 2,165 million cubic metres of gas. Residential consumers account for about 48% of Manitoba gas consumption.
near Thompson
. The general civil works contract was awarded in 2008, and first power from the project is planned in 2012.
This 200 MW station will have three hydraulic turbine generator units, will cause less than one half square kilometre of new flooding, and will have only a small reservoir. This project had the most extensive environmental review of any generating project in Manitoba. Participation of the Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation
(NCN) First Nation was passed by a June 2006 referendum by NCN members. This partnership between NCN and Manitoba Hydro will allow advancement of the in-service date to 2012 and opportunities for additional export revenue. Otherwise the domestic load growth would not require this new capacity until several years later.
As of June 2009, most excavation and primary concrete is completed, and the service bay is enclosed. The spillway gate hoist housing has been erected. River closure and diversion is planned for July. The access road and construction camp site, and construction power, have been completed, along with services such as water supply and sewage lagoons for the camp. A new 230 kV gas-insulated substation
has been constructed adjacent to the dam site, which will distribute power from the Wuskwatim generators to the transmission network. A cofferdam
has been constructed for excavation of the tailrace and spillway channel. Secondary concrete and turbine installation will continue through the summer and fall of 2010. The construction camp population varies according to activity level but as of July 2010 there were 635 workers in the construction camp.
, but this area is ecologically and culturally sensitive and power line construction will require extensive environmental impact assessment.
Another unusual feature of Manitoba Hydro is that it is a completely integrated electrical utility, with generation, transmission, and distribution operations. This means that Manitoba Hydro can consider the total system cost and benefits of any new development, rather than, for example, building generation capacity that relies on a second party for transmission. An example of this approach was seen at the Clean Environment Commission public hearings for the recent Wuskwatim Generation Project and the Wuskwatim Transmission Project, in which environmental reviews for both the generating station and associated transmission facilities were carried out at the same time.
Manitoba Hydro's mandate to serve dictates that it builds enough transmission and generating firm capacity to serve the Manitoba home market first. However, in a typical year, more energy is available than the firm capacity. This can be economically exported from the Province. Since this energy is typically sold on short-term contracts or even on a spot market
, the returns on these sales increase Manitoba Hydro's retained earnings, allowing domestic rates to be stable and low.
Since Manitoba Hydro is a Crown Corporation paying no dividends and not obligated to provide a return on investment to shareholders, energy costs to industrial and residential consumers are lower than they would otherwise be. These lower costs help offset some of the higher costs of doing business in a region far from large markets.
As a Provincial Crown Corporation, investment decisions by Manitoba Hydro are heavily influenced by political and economic goals of the provincial government. For example, in the 1986 Manitoba provincial election, the incumbent New Democratic Party
government announced accelerated construction of the Limestone project, with promises of increased employment as a result. Limestone GS was estimated to create 6000 person-years of direct employment, 11,000 of indirect employment over the construction period of eight years. As part of the contract for the ten turbine-generator units, Canadian General Electric
agreed to invest $10,000,000 CAD in Manitoba business operations, and to obtain at least 15 per cent of installation labour locally.
Today Manitoba Hydro serves a peak Manitoba electrical load of more than 4400 megawatts. Electrical supply to Manitoba customers was 21 terawatt-hours in fiscal 2008, with total revenues of $2.02 billion CAD. Extraprovincial sales were at 9.6 terawatthours, with normal water flows. The company also delivered 2.1 billion cubic metres of natural gas in 2008, which contributed $573 million CAD to revenues.
Manitoba Hydro had 6018 employees at the end of the 2008 fiscal year. Capital assets were valued at nearly $12.4 billion CAD.
In fiscal 2008 (ending March 31, 2009), the total generation was 35.3 terawatt-hours. Manitoba domestic consumption was 21.1 TW·h with a net of 9.59 TW·h exported. In 2001 generation was nearly 32.7 terawatt-hours, allowing net export of 12 TW·h to customers in the United States, Ontario and Saskatchewan. A terawatt-hour is the average annual consumption of 70,000 Manitoba residences, 14,100 kW·h per year each. The peak load was 4,477 MW on January 15, 2009, an increase of 4.81% over the previous year.
In fiscal 2008, Manitoba Hydro obtained 0.95 % of its total generated electrical energy from fossil fuel at the Brandon generating station, and 1.09% from wind energy purchased from the St. Leon project. About 0.3% of energy distributed in the province was imported.
A subsidiary company, Manitoba Hydro International, provides electric power consulting services. Manitoba Hydro also operates a high-voltage DC laboratory. Meridium Power, a subsidiary company, markets a line of written-pole AC electric motor
s suitable for heavy loads on single-phase systems and for power quality improvement. W.I.R.E. Services supplies services to transmission line operators for re-rating and verification of transmission line capacity.
As of September 2009, the company has completed its new headquarters building, the Manitoba Hydro Tower
on Portage Avenue. About 1650 Hydro employees work in this building. It is the 4th tallest building in the city at 112.5 meters to the top of solar chimney
with a total of 22 stories and 690,000 square feet (64,100 square metres) floor space. The building is intended to be one of the most energy-efficient building of its size in North America, and to consume 60% less energy than the national building code requirements.
Manitoba Hydro publications
Public utility
A public utility is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service . Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and regulation ranging from local community-based groups to state-wide government monopolies...
in the province of Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Founded in 1961, it is a provincial Crown Corporation, governed by the Manitoba Hydro-Electric Board and the Manitoba Hydro Act. Today the company operates 15 interconnected generating stations. It has more than 527,000 electric power customers and more than 263,000 natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
customers. Since most of the electrical energy is provided by hydroelectric power, the utility has low electricity rates. Stations in Northern Manitoba are connected by a HVDC
High-voltage direct current
A high-voltage, direct current electric power transmission system uses direct current for the bulk transmission of electrical power, in contrast with the more common alternating current systems. For long-distance transmission, HVDC systems may be less expensive and suffer lower electrical losses...
system, the Nelson River Bipole
Nelson River Bipole
thumb|right|Nelson River Bipoles 1 and 2 terminate at Dorsey Converter Station near [[Rosser, Manitoba]]. The station takes [[HVDC]] current and converts it to [[alternating current|HVAC]] current for re-distribution to consumers...
, to customers in the south. The internal staff are members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees
Canadian Union of Public Employees
The Canadian Union of Public Employees is a Canadian trade union serving the public sector - although it has in recent years organized workplaces in the non-profit and para-public sector as well...
Local 998 while the outside workers are members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is a labor union which represents workers in the electrical industry in the United States, Canada, Panama and several Caribbean island nations; particularly electricians, or Inside Wiremen, in the construction industry and linemen and other...
Local 2034.
Manitoba Hydro headquarters in the downtown Winnipeg
Downtown Winnipeg
Downtown Winnipeg is centred around Portage Avenue and Main Street, and is bounded by the Assiniboine River on the south, Colony and Balmoral Streets on the west, Notre Dame Avenue, Princess Street, and Logan Avenue on the north, and the Red River on the east. It includes the Exchange District,...
Manitoba Hydro Place officially opened in 2009.
1873-1960: electric power before Manitoba Hydro
The first recorded attempt to extract useful work from a Manitoba river was in 1829 at a flour mill (known as Grant's Mill) located on Sturgeon Creek in what is now Winnipeg. This was not successful and the milling equipment was later operated by a windmillWindmill
A windmill is a machine which converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Originally windmills were developed for milling grain for food production. In the course of history the windmill was adapted to many other industrial uses. An important...
.
The first public electric lighting installation in Manitoba was demonstrated at the Davis House hotel on Main Street, Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, March 12, 1873. In 1880, the Manitoba Electric and Gas Light Company was incorporated to provide public lighting and power, and a year later absorbed the Winnipeg Gas Company. In 1893, the Winnipeg Electric Street Railway Company was formed, and initially purchased power from Manitoba Electric and Gas, but by 1898, it had built its own 1000-horsepower
Horsepower
Horsepower is the name of several units of measurement of power. The most common definitions equal between 735.5 and 750 watts.Horsepower was originally defined to compare the output of steam engines with the power of draft horses in continuous operation. The unit was widely adopted to measure the...
(750 kW) generating plant and purchased Manitoba Electric and Gas.
The first hydroelectric plant in Manitoba operated north of Brandon
Brandon, Manitoba
Brandon is the second largest city in Manitoba, Canada, and is located in the southwestern area of the province. Brandon is the largest city in the Westman region of Manitoba. The city is located along the Assiniboine River. Spruce Woods Provincial Park and CFB Shilo are a relatively short distance...
from 1901 to 1924. A 261-foot (80 m) earth-fill dam was constructed across the Minnedosa River (now known as the Little Saskatchewan River
Little Saskatchewan River
The Little Saskatchewan River is a river in western Manitoba. It originates in Riding Mountain National Park at Lake Audy and flows about south through the communities of Minnedosa and Rapid City. Its approximate length is 185 km. It joins the Assiniboine River about west of Brandon. The...
) about a kilometer from its junction with the Assiniboine River
Assiniboine River
The Assiniboine River is a river that runs through the prairies of Western Canada in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It is a tributary of the Red River. The Assiniboine is a typical meandering river with a single main channel embanked within a flat, shallow valley in some places and a steep valley in...
by private investors. The plant only operated part of the year, with the load carried in the winter months by steam generators
Fossil fuel power plant
A fossil-fuel power station is a power station that burns fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas or petroleum to produce electricity. Central station fossil-fuel power plants are designed on a large scale for continuous operation...
. An 11-kV wood-pole transmission line connected the station with the town of Brandon, Manitoba. The dam washed out in 1948 but remains are still visible. A second plant was built by private investors near Minnedosa
Minnedosa, Manitoba
Minnedosa is a town in the southwestern part of the Canadian province of Manitoba. Situated 50 kilometres north of Brandon, Manitoba on the Little Saskatchewan River, the name means "flowing water" in Sioux. The population of Minnedosa reported in the 2006 Statistics Canada Census was 2,474...
in 1912 but low water levels meant that it only operated intermittently. In 1920 the plant was replaced by a diesel station owned by the Manitoba Power Commission. The dam still exists today at Minnedosa Lake.
By 1906, Winnipeg Electric Street Railway had constructed a hydroelectric plant on the Winnipeg River near Pinawa
Pinawa, Manitoba
Pinawa is a small Canadian community of about 1500 residents located in southeastern Manitoba, 110 kilometres north-east of Winnipeg. The town is situated on the Canadian Shield within the western boundary of Whiteshell Provincial Park, which lies near the Manitoba-Ontario provincial boundary...
, and seventy miles (100 km) of 60-kV transmission line. This plant operated year-round until 1951, when it was shut down to allow improved water flow to other Winnipeg River stations. Its remains are still preserved as a Provincial park http://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/parks/popular_parks/pinawa_dam/info.html.
Since the investor-owned Winnipeg Electric Street Railway was charging twenty cents per kilowatt-hour, the City of Winnipeg founded its own utility in 1906,
and developed a generating station at Pointe du Bois on the Winnipeg River (which still operates). In reaction to this, Winnipeg Electric Street Railway dropped prices to ten cents per kilowatt-hour, but the City-owned utility (Winnipeg Hydro) set a price of 3.5 cents per kilowatt-hour which held for many decades.
In 1916, the Province established the Manitoba Power Commission with the object of bringing electric power to communities outside of Winnipeg.
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
starting in 1929 put an end to rapid growth until after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The City of Winnipeg utility built coal-fired steam generators in 1924 on Amy Street, which were also used for district heating
District heating
District heating is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heating and water heating...
of downtown buildings. During World War Two, electric boilers at Amy Street used surplus hydroelectric power to economize on coal consumption. The City utility also implemented load management on electric water heaters, which allowed them to be turned off during the day and during peak load periods.
In 1949 the Province set up a new utility, the Manitoba Hydro Electric Board (MHEB). In 1953 the MHEB acquired the assets of the Winnipeg Electric Street Railway. The MHEB was tasked with bringing electric power to the rural parts
Rural electrification
Rural electrification is the process of bringing electrical power to rural and remote areas. Electricity is used not only for lighting and household purposes, but it also allows for mechanization of many farming operations, such as threshing, milking, and hoisting grain for storage; in areas...
of Manitoba, a task which took until around 1956 to substantially complete.
By 1955 there were three utilities in the province:
- Manitoba Power Commission (Provincial Government)
- Manitoba Hydro Electric Board (Provincial Government)
- Winnipeg Hydro Electric System (City of Winnipeg government).
Two thermal (coal-fired)
Fossil fuel power plant
A fossil-fuel power station is a power station that burns fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas or petroleum to produce electricity. Central station fossil-fuel power plants are designed on a large scale for continuous operation...
stations were built at Brandon and Selkirk starting in 1958. These units were intended to operate during low-water years, and burned lignite
Lignite
Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, or Rosebud coal by Northern Pacific Railroad,is a soft brown fuel with characteristics that put it somewhere between coal and peat...
coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
.
In 1957, the first transmission line between Manitoba and North-West Ontario was installed. In 1960, a 138-kV connection to Saskatchewan Power Corporation was completed, and it was later uprated to 230 kV.
1961 to date: the Manitoba Hydro era
The Manitoba Power Commission and Manitoba Hydro Electric Board merged in 1961 to form Manitoba Hydro. One of the earlier wholesale accounts to be transferred to Manitoba Hydro in 1956 was the village of EmersonEmerson, Manitoba
Emerson is a town in south central Manitoba, Canada, with a population of 655. The town is named after writer Ralph Waldo Emerson.Emerson is located on the east bank of the Red River, just north of the border with the United States at the point where Manitoba, Minnesota, and North Dakota meet. ...
, which had been served up to that point by a cross-border tie to the Otter Tail Power system at Noyes
Noyes, Minnesota
Noyes is an unincorporated community in St. Vincent Township, Kittson County, Minnesota, United States. Located in the extreme northwestern corner of the state, it was an important border-crossing location going back to the days of ox roads. It is the northern terminus of U.S. Route 75 and the...
. The last of the private mine-owned utility systems at Flin Flon
Flin Flon
Flin Flon is a Canadian mining city located on the border of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, with the majority of the city located within Manitoba.- Founding :...
was purchased by Manitoba Hydro in 1973. The early 1970s also marked the installation of tie lines between Manitoba Hydro and utilities in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Minnesota. The interconnection with the American utilities (Otter Tail Power, Northern States Power, and Minkota Power Co-Operative) were used to obtain firm power of 90 MW for the winter of 1970; and since that time these interconnections have also been used for export of energy.
In the period 1974 to 1976, Manitoba Hydro was still studying nuclear power
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
, but it concluded that all hydraulic resources should be developed first before construction of any nuclear facility. Although two research nuclear reactors existed at the Pinawa AECL
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited or AECL is a Canadian federal Crown corporation and Canada's largest nuclear science and technology laboratory...
research facility, no nuclear generating capacity has ever been constructed in Manitoba.
In July 1999, Manitoba Hydro purchased the natural gas distribution company Centra Gas Manitoba. In September 2002, Manitoba Hydro purchased Winnipeg Hydro
Winnipeg Hydro
Winnipeg Hydro is a former provider of electrical power in the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It was established in 1906 and was purchased by Manitoba Hydro in 2002....
, which formerly provided electric power in the downtown
Downtown Winnipeg
Downtown Winnipeg is centred around Portage Avenue and Main Street, and is bounded by the Assiniboine River on the south, Colony and Balmoral Streets on the west, Notre Dame Avenue, Princess Street, and Logan Avenue on the north, and the Red River on the east. It includes the Exchange District,...
area of Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
.
Nelson River development
The water power potential of the Nelson River was described as early as 1911, when over 6 million horsepowerHorsepower
Horsepower is the name of several units of measurement of power. The most common definitions equal between 735.5 and 750 watts.Horsepower was originally defined to compare the output of steam engines with the power of draft horses in continuous operation. The unit was widely adopted to measure the...
of potential generation capacity was identified at 11 sites - at a time when the developed hydropower in the rest of Canada was around 1 million horsepower. Between 1955 and 1960, studies were carried out to determine what resources would be available for future hydraulic generation. The stations at Kelsey, Kettle, Long Spruce and Limestone were built on the lower Nelson River to support both Manitoba load growth and export plans. Limestone, the largest generating station in Manitoba, is located on the Lower Nelson only 90 km from Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay , sometimes called Hudson's Bay, is a large body of saltwater in northeastern Canada. It drains a very large area, about , that includes parts of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, most of Manitoba, southeastern Nunavut, as well as parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota,...
. Long-term firm power sales contracts were signed with Northern States Power
Xcel Energy
Xcel Energy, Inc. is a public utility company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, serving customers in Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin. Primary services are electricity and natural gas...
of Minneapolis. Control dams have turned Lake Winnipeg
Lake Winnipeg
Lake Winnipeg is a large, lake in central North America, in the province of Manitoba, Canada, with its southern tip about north of the city of Winnipeg...
, the 12th largest lake in the world, into a 25,000 km² reservoir for the Nelson River generation system.
The great distance between generating sites on the Nelson River and load centers in southern Manitoba required the use of HVDC transmission lines to bring the energy to market. When these lines were commissioned, they were the longest and highest-voltage direct current lines in the world. The Dorsey converter station is 26 km north-west of the center of Winnipeg.
Wind development
Starting in 2005, a wind farmWind power
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....
was built near St. Leon, Manitoba. Power generated by this privately constructed plant is purchased by Manitoba Hydro for distribution on its network. The capacity of this installation is 99.9 MW, comprising 63 wind turbine
Wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity, the device may be called a wind generator or wind charger. If the mechanical energy is used to drive machinery, such as for grinding grain or...
s of 1.65 MW each. This is the first privately owned grid-connected generation to be constructed in Manitoba in nearly fifty years. Energy produced by this facility is subsidized by the Canadian Government's
Government of Canada
The Government of Canada, formally Her Majesty's Government, is the system whereby the federation of Canada is administered by a common authority; in Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or specifically the Queen-in-Council...
Wind Power Production Incentive
Wind Power Production Incentive
The Wind Power Production Incentive, or WPPI, was a program of the Canadian Government that promoted the generation of electricity from wind power in Canada to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas that would otherwise enter the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels...
, though over the life of the project tax revenue will exceed the value of the initial subsidy.
Multiple wind farm sites with capacities between 50 and 200 MW have been studied for Manitoba. The Manitoba OASIS
Open Access Same-Time Information System
The Open Access Same-Time Information System , is an Internet-based system for obtaining services related to electric power transmission in North America. It is the primary means by which high-voltage transmission lines are reserved for moving wholesale quantities of electricity...
node has generator interconnection evaluation studies for wind farms at Elie, Lena, Darlingford, Boissevain, Killarney, and Minnedosa. Additional probable wind farm sites of up to 200 MW are in the generation queue on the OASIS for St. Leon, St. Laurent, Letellier, Waskada,Alexander, Lizard Lake, Lk. Manitoba Narrows and other locations.http://oasis.midwestiso.org/documents/Mheb/queue.html
The Manitoba Hydro Act
The Manitoba Hydro Act governs Manitoba Hydro. The purpose of the Manitoba Hydro Act was to provide for efficient, economical supply of electric power for the needs of the province. The first version of the act was effective March 31, 1961 and it has been revised since that date. Notably, the Act now carries a provision prohibiting privatization of Manitoba Hydro without a public referendum.Since 1970, a Minister responsible for the Manitoba Hydro Act has sat on Executive Council of Manitoba
Executive Council of Manitoba
The Executive Council of Manitoba is the cabinet of that Canadian province.Almost always made up of members of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, the Cabinet is similar in structure and role to the Cabinet of Canada while being smaller in size...
. This position is not a full departmental portfolio in the Manitoba executive council, and it is generally held by ministers who also hold other cabinet responsibilities. The current minister, Gregory Selinger
Gregory Selinger
Gregory F. "Greg" Selinger, is a Canadian politician. He has been serving as the 21st Premier of Manitoba since October 19, 2009, leading an NDP government. From 1999 to 2009 he was the Minister of Finance in the government of his immediate predecessor, Gary Doer. Selinger has been the member of...
, is also the Minister of Finance.
| Edward Schreyer Edward Schreyer Edward Richard Schreyer , commonly known as Ed Schreyer, is a Canadian politician, diplomat, and statesman who served as Governor General of Canada, the 22nd since Canadian Confederation.... |
(NDP New Democratic Party of Manitoba The New Democratic Party of Manitoba is a social-democratic political party in Manitoba, Canada. It is the provincial wing of the federal New Democratic Party, and is a successor to the Manitoba Co-operative Commonwealth Federation... ) |
September 8, 1970-January 28, 1974 |
| Donald Craik Donald Craik Donald Craik was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1966 to 1981, and served as a cabinet minister in the governments of Walter Weir and Sterling Lyon.Born in Baldur, Manitoba, Craik was educated at the... |
(PC Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba The Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba is the only right wing political party in Manitoba, Canada. It is also the official opposition party in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba.-Origins and early years:... ) |
October 24, 1977-January 16, 1981 |
| Wilson Parasiuk Wilson Parasiuk Wilson Parasiuk is an entrepreneur with experience in the private and public sectors. As founder and CEO of the Vancouver–area based Paralink Group of Companies, Parasiuk organizes private sector/public sector partnerships in the export of Canada’s health care, education and governmental expertise... |
(NDP) | November 30, 1981-May 20, 1986 |
| Victor Schroeder | (NDP) | May 20, 1986-October 29, 1986 |
| Wilson Parasiuk | (NDP) | October 29, 1986-September 21, 1987 |
| Jerry Storie Jerry Storie Jerry Thomas Storie is a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1981 to 1995, and a cabinet minister in the New Democratic Party government of Howard Pawley from 1982 to 1988.... |
(NDP) | September 21, 1987-May 9, 1988 |
| Harold Neufeld Harold Neufeld Harold Neufeld is a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1988 to 1993, and a cabinet minister in the government of Gary Filmon from 1988 to 1992.... |
(PC) | May 9, 1988-January 14, 1992 |
| Donald Orchard Donald Orchard Donald Orchard is a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1977 to 1995, and was a cabinet minister in the Progressive Conservative governments of Sterling Lyon and Gary Filmon.... |
(PC) | September 10, 1993-March 20, 1995 |
| David Newman David Newman (politician) David Gerald Newman is a politician in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1995 to 1999, and was a cabinet minister under Gary Filmon from 1997 to 1999... |
(PC) | January 6, 1997-October 5, 1999 |
| Gregory Selinger Gregory Selinger Gregory F. "Greg" Selinger, is a Canadian politician. He has been serving as the 21st Premier of Manitoba since October 19, 2009, leading an NDP government. From 1999 to 2009 he was the Minister of Finance in the government of his immediate predecessor, Gary Doer. Selinger has been the member of... |
(NDP) | October 5, 1999-September 25, 2002 |
| Tim Sale Tim Sale (politician) Edward Timothy Sale was a Manitoba politician, and a former member of the Premier Gary Doer's cabinet.Sale was born in Goderich, Ontario in 1942... |
(NDP) | September 25, 2002-October 12, 2004 |
| Dave Chomiak | (NDP) | October 12, 2004-September 21, 2006 |
| Gregory Selinger Gregory Selinger Gregory F. "Greg" Selinger, is a Canadian politician. He has been serving as the 21st Premier of Manitoba since October 19, 2009, leading an NDP government. From 1999 to 2009 he was the Minister of Finance in the government of his immediate predecessor, Gary Doer. Selinger has been the member of... |
(NDP) | September 21, 2006- |
Generating stations
| Station | Started | Location | Units | Power per unit (MW) |
Total power (MW) | Average annual generation (TW·h) |
Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pointe du Bois | 1911 | Winnipeg R. Winnipeg River The Winnipeg River is a Canadian river which flows 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 watershed is in area, mainly in Canada. About of this area is in northern... |
16 | various | 78 | 0.6 | Ex–Winnipeg Hydro, 8.4 MW Straflo installed 1999, 14 m head, replacement planned |
| Great Falls Great Falls Dam (Manitoba) Great Falls Generating Station is a hydroelectric dam on the Winnipeg River approximately 130 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg in the Rural Municipality of Alexander in the Canadian province of Manitoba. The dam is owned and operated by Manitoba Hydro, and has a generating capacity of 130 megawatts... |
1922 | Winnipeg R. | 6 | various | 131 | 0.75 | Ex–Winnipeg Electric Railway Co., 17.7 m head, 883 m³/s each unit |
| Seven Sisters | 1931 | Winnipeg R. | 6 | 25 | 165 | 0.99 | 18.6 m head, 1,146 m³/s http://ieee.ca/millennium/seven_sisters/seven_history.html |
| Slave Falls | 1931 | Winnipeg R. | 8 | 8 | 67 | 0.52 | Ex–Winnipeg Hydro |
| Laurie River 1 | 1952 | Laurie R. | 1 | 5 | 5 | 0.03 | Ex–Sherrit Gordon, 16.8 m head |
| Pine Falls | 1952 | Winnipeg R. | 6 | 14 | 82 | 0.62 | 11.3 m head, 917 m³/s |
| McArthur Falls | 1954 | Winnipeg R. | 8 | 7 | 56 | 0.38 | 7 m head, 966 m³/s |
| Kelsey | 1957 | Nelson R. Nelson River The Nelson River is a river of north-central North America, in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Its full length is , it has mean discharge of , and has a drainage basin of , of which is in the United States... |
7 | 30 | 211 | 1.8 | Ex-INCO, 17.1 m head, station 1,713 m³/s http://www.hydro.mb.ca/our_facilities/gs_kelsey.pdf |
| Laurie River 2 | 1958 | Laurie R. | 2 | 2.5 | 5 | 0.03 | As for LR 1 |
| Brandon (steam) Brandon Generating Station Brandon Generating Station is a subbituminous coal and natural gas fired station owned by Manitoba Hydro, located in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. The station was first built to burn lignite from Saskatchewan.... |
1958 | Brandon Brandon, Manitoba Brandon is the second largest city in Manitoba, Canada, and is located in the southwestern area of the province. Brandon is the largest city in the Westman region of Manitoba. The city is located along the Assiniboine River. Spruce Woods Provincial Park and CFB Shilo are a relatively short distance... |
1 | 105 | 105 | 0.6 | Unit 5, sub-bituminous coal, emergency use only |
| Selkirk (steam) Selkirk Generating Station Selkirk Generating Station is a natural gas fired station owned by Manitoba Hydro, located in Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada. The station was originally designed as a coal fired station burning lignite. In 2002 it underwent a $30 M conversion to natural gas.... |
1958 | Selkirk Selkirk, Manitoba Selkirk is a city in the western Canadian province of Manitoba, located about 22 km northeast of the provincial capital Winnipeg on the Red River, near . As of the 2006 census, Selkirk had a population of 9,515.... |
2 | 60 | 121 | 0.3 | Natural gas Natural gas Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural... since 2002 |
| Grand Rapids | 1965 | Saskatchewan R. Saskatchewan River The Saskatchewan River is a major river in Canada, approximately long, flowing roughly eastward across Saskatchewan and Manitoba to empty into Lake Winnipeg... |
4 | 120 | 472 | 1.54 | First station built under Manitoba Hydro name, frequency control for Manitoba, 36.6 m head, 1500 m³/s per unit http://www.hydro.mb.ca/our_facilities/gs_grand_rapids.pdf |
| Kettle | 1970 | Nelson R. | 12 | 103 | 1,228 | 7.1 | 30 m head, 370 m³/s each unit http://www.hydro.mb.ca/our_facilities/gs_kettle.pdf |
| Long Spruce | 1977 | Nelson R. | 10 | 100 | 1,010 | 5.8 | 26 m head, 4,580 m³/s http://www.hydro.mb.ca/our_facilities/gs_long_spruce.pdf |
| Jenpeg | 1979 | Nelson R. | 6 | 16 | 97 | 0.9 | USSR Bulb Turbines http://www.hydro.mb.ca/our_facilities/gs_jenpeg.pdf |
| Limestone | 1990 | Nelson R. | 10 | 135 | 1,340 | 7.7 | 5,100 m³/s total http://www.hydro.mb.ca/our_facilities/gs_limestone.pdf |
| Wuskwatim Generating Station | 2012 | Burntwood River | 3 | 66 | 200 | First power planned May 2012 | |
| Brandon (combustion turbine) Brandon Generating Station Brandon Generating Station is a subbituminous coal and natural gas fired station owned by Manitoba Hydro, located in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. The station was first built to burn lignite from Saskatchewan.... |
2002 | Brandon | 2 | 130 | 260 | 0.05 | Units 6 & 7, natural gas/diesel backup simple cycle |
| Diesel Plants | - | Brochet Brochet, Manitoba Brochet is an unincorporated community located in Northern Manitoba near the Saskatchewan border . There is no year round road service to the mostly Cree people. A winter road is in place only a few months a year. Air service at Brochet Airport is the main link outside the community... , Lac Brochet Lac Brochet Lac Brochet is a lake in north-west Manitoba. There is an associated town by the same name.... , Tadoule Lake, Shamattawa |
12 | various | 4 | 0.01 | Diesel fuel, not on grid |
Generating station total ratings are approximate. Water flow conditions and station service load may account for some of the difference between rated station output and total unit nameplate rating. In a typical year the hydroelectric plants produce more than ninety-five percent of the energy sold.
AC system
Manitoba Hydro operates an extensive network of more than 9000 km of ac transmission lines. Transmission voltages in use include:- 66 kV
- 115 kV
- 138 kV
- 230 kV
- 500 kV
Distribution voltages include 4160 V especially in urban Winnipeg, 12.47 kV and 25 kV, usually on overhead conductors but often in buried cables. Total length of distribution lines is over 80,000 km.
Transmission lines built in Manitoba must withstand a wide temperature range, ice, and occasional high winds. In 1997, a tornado
Tornado
A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...
blew down 19 transmission towers of the HVDC system north of Winnipeg, reducing transmission capacity from the North to a small fraction of system capacity. During the several days required for utility employees to repair this line, power was imported from the United States over the 500 kV interconnection. As a consequence, though some major industrial customers were requested to curtail energy use, disruption for most customers remained small.
DC system
A large portion of the energy generated on the Nelson river is transmitted south on the HVDC Nelson River BipoleNelson River Bipole
thumb|right|Nelson River Bipoles 1 and 2 terminate at Dorsey Converter Station near [[Rosser, Manitoba]]. The station takes [[HVDC]] current and converts it to [[alternating current|HVAC]] current for re-distribution to consumers...
system. The two transmission lines, each nearly 900 km long, operate at +/- 450 kV and +/- 500 kV DC, with converter stations at Gillam
Gillam, Manitoba
Gillam, Manitoba, Canada, is a community between Thompson and Churchill on the Hudson Bay Railway line. Gillam is a significant community because of the nearby Nelson River Bipole converter station on the Nelson River...
and Sundance
Sundance, Manitoba
Sundance was a community near the Nelson River in Northern Manitoba that was constructed in the mid-1980s to house the workers of the Limestone Dam project, who were employees of Manitoba Hydro, GE and other companies...
, and the inverter station, Dorsey, near Rosser
Rosser, Manitoba
Rosser, Manitoba is a rural municipality lying adjacent to the northwest side of Winnipeg at . It is part of the Winnipeg Capital Region. Its population as of the 2001 census was 1,412....
. The combined capacity of the two HVDC lines is 3420 MW, or about 68% of the total generation capacity in the province.
Exports
Manitoba Hydro has transmission lines connecting with SaskatchewanSaskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, North Dakota
North Dakota
North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
and Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
. Ties to the Canadian provinces are of low capacity but a substantial portion of Manitoba Hydro's annual generation can be exported over the tie to Minnesota. In 2003, a new line was completed to the United States (the Harvey-Glenboro 230kV line), allowing a firm export capacity of 700 megawatts. In 2005 Manitoba Hydro announced increased interchange up to 500 MW with Ontario, after construction of additional transmission facilities. Manitoba Hydro's largest interconnection is the Dorsey-Forbes-Chisago 500,000 volt (AC) line that begins at the Dorsey substation located in Rosser
Rosser, Manitoba
Rosser, Manitoba is a rural municipality lying adjacent to the northwest side of Winnipeg at . It is part of the Winnipeg Capital Region. Its population as of the 2001 census was 1,412....
near Winnipeg and travels south into the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and takes a southeasterly direction to the Forbes Substation northwest of Duluth, Minnesota
Duluth, Minnesota
Duluth is a port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Saint Louis County. The fourth largest city in Minnesota, Duluth had a total population of 86,265 in the 2010 census. Duluth is also the second largest city that is located on Lake Superior after Thunder Bay, Ontario,...
and from there goes south to the Chisago substation located just north of St. Paul, Minnesota.
Manitoba Hydro also participates in "border accommodation" transfers, where it provides power to isolated extraprovincial end-use loads such as those of the Northwest Angle
Northwest Angle
The Northwest Angle, known simply as the Angle by locals, and coextensive with Angle Township, is a part of northern Lake of the Woods County, Minnesota, and is the only place in the United States outside Alaska that is north of the 49th parallel...
in Minnesota.
Manitoba Hydro is a member of the MRO Midwest Reliability Organization
Midwest Reliability Organization
The Midwest Reliability Organization began operations on January 1, 2005, as the successor to the Mid-continent Area Power Pool , which was formed in 1965. MRO is one of nine regional electric reliability councils under North American Electric Reliability Corporation authority...
, a region of the North American Electrical Reliability Council NERC
NERC
NERC may refer:* Natural Environment Research Council* Nashville & Eastern Railroad Corporation* North American Electric Reliability Corporation* National Engineering Robotics Contest...
and successor to MAPP (Mid-continent Area Power Pool) since June 15, 2004. Manitoba Hydro continues its membership in MAPP, which retains its function as a generation reserves sharing pool.
Export of electrical energy has been regulated since 1907 in Canada. Since 1959, the National Energy Board
National Energy Board
The National Energy Board is an independent economic regulatory agency created in 1959 by the Government of Canada to oversee "international and inter-provincial aspects of the oil, gas and electric utility industries"...
licences exports, based on the criteria that the exports are surplus to domestic need and that the price charged is reasonable and in the Canadian public interest. Similarly, exporters of power from the United States into Canada require a United States Export Authorization.
Natural gas customers
Manitoba Hydro has about 238,000 residential, and 24,700 commercial and industrial customers. In fiscal 2008 total gas revenues were $580 million CADCanadian dollar
The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...
on 2,165 million cubic metres of gas. Residential consumers account for about 48% of Manitoba gas consumption.
Recent and current projects
Manitoba Hydro has a capital spending program intended to maintain and extend capacity for Manitoba customers, for environmental protection, and to allow export of energy surplus to Manitoba needs to stabilize rates. Some of these projects include:- Power Smart: Manitoba Hydro has operated a Power Smart program since 1991. This project identifies energy conservation and efficiency opportunities for residential, commercial and industrial customers. Measures such as high-efficiency electric motorElectric motorAn electric motor converts electrical energy into mechanical energy.Most electric motors operate through the interaction of magnetic fields and current-carrying conductors to generate force...
s and improved lightingLightingLighting or illumination is the deliberate application of light to achieve some practical or aesthetic effect. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources such as lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylight...
have offset 292 MW of peak load growth and up to 631 million kW·h per year of energy consumption. In 2005 Manitoba Hydro announced goals of doubling Power Smart capacity savings to 842 MW and 2.6 terawatt-hours by 2018. - INROCS (Interlake Nelson River Optical Cable System is the replacement of the former microwaveMicrowaveMicrowaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...
links for control of northern generation and transmission with a buried fiber optic cable system. More than 1140 km of cable were buried between the system control center in Winnipeg, to the present northern-most stations near Gillam. - Brandon Combustion Turbines: In 2003, Manitoba Hydro commissioned two simple-cycle gas turbineGas turbineA gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of internal combustion engine. It has an upstream rotating compressor coupled to a downstream turbine, and a combustion chamber in-between....
generating units at the existing plant in Brandon. These natural gasNatural gasNatural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
-fuelled units are intended to provide peaking power and supplemental capacity in case of low water levels. - Selkirk Natural Gas Conversion: In 2003, the fuel supply of the Selkirk steam boilers was converted to natural gas. While this is a more expensive fuel than the coal previously used at this plant, it allows the life of the station to be extended without the capital cost required to clean coal emissions up to current standards.
- Wind Energy Survey: While Manitoba Hydro is in the process of completing a wind energy survey at five locations, private developers have completed a wind farm at St. Leon and will sell all power generated to Manitoba Hydro. Manitoba Hydro has not announced an in-service date for additional utility-owned wind generation.
- New Hydraulic Generation (Keeyask, Conawapa, Notigi) and HVDC Transmission (Bipole III): Studies are continuing to permit eventual construction of new generating projects along the Nelson RiverNelson RiverThe Nelson River is a river of north-central North America, in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Its full length is , it has mean discharge of , and has a drainage basin of , of which is in the United States...
. The Keeyask station (formerly known as Gull) would have a capacity of approximately 630 megawatts and planning studies are continuing. Projected first power date is likely about 2015, but no final design or construction decisions have been made, and no environmental hearings have been scheduled yet; however, in February 2009 the Tataskweyak Cree Nation community voted in favor of participation in the project. The 1380 megawatt Conawapa project was initiated but postponed indefinitely in 1992 when Ontario HydroOntario HydroOntario Hydro was the official name from 1974 of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario which was established in 1906 by the provincial Power Commission Act to build transmission lines to supply municipal utilities with electricity generated by private companies already operating at Niagara...
elected not to purchase firm energy from Manitoba. Planning activities now underway are intended to allow for an in-service date of about 2017, but no construction commitment has been made and no environmental hearings are currently scheduled. The in-service date would be after that for Wuskwatim and Keeyask. The potential generating station at Notigi would produce approximately 100 megawatts, and would create no new flooding, but no in-service date has been set for this project, and no plans are in progress to build the station at this time. - Pointe du Bois replacement: In 2007 Manitoba Hydro announced plans to replace the 90-year old Point du Bois plant with a new $800 million (Canadian) generating project at the same site, with greater output, reliability, and efficiency.
Wuskwatim generating station
Manitoba Hydro has started construction for the Wuskwatim generating station, on the Burntwood RiverBurntwood River
The Burntwood River is a river in northeast Manitoba, Canada between the Churchill River and the Nelson River. Outsiders may know it as the river that passes through Thompson, Manitoba. It is over 200 miles long and flows mostly east to join the Nelson River at Split Lake, Manitoba. Near its...
near Thompson
Thompson, Manitoba
Thompson is a city in northern Manitoba. As the "Hub of the North" it serves as the regional trade and service centre of northern Manitoba. Thompson is located north of the Canada – United States border, north of the provincial capital of Winnipeg, and is northeast of Flin Flon...
. The general civil works contract was awarded in 2008, and first power from the project is planned in 2012.
This 200 MW station will have three hydraulic turbine generator units, will cause less than one half square kilometre of new flooding, and will have only a small reservoir. This project had the most extensive environmental review of any generating project in Manitoba. Participation of the Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation
Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation
The Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation is a Cree-speaking community of about 4,200 Cree centered in Nelson House, Manitoba, Canada. Nelson House is located about 80 km west of Thompson and is accessible via the mixed paved and gravel Provincial Road 391...
(NCN) First Nation was passed by a June 2006 referendum by NCN members. This partnership between NCN and Manitoba Hydro will allow advancement of the in-service date to 2012 and opportunities for additional export revenue. Otherwise the domestic load growth would not require this new capacity until several years later.
As of June 2009, most excavation and primary concrete is completed, and the service bay is enclosed. The spillway gate hoist housing has been erected. River closure and diversion is planned for July. The access road and construction camp site, and construction power, have been completed, along with services such as water supply and sewage lagoons for the camp. A new 230 kV gas-insulated substation
Electrical substation
A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform any of several other important functions...
has been constructed adjacent to the dam site, which will distribute power from the Wuskwatim generators to the transmission network. A cofferdam
Cofferdam
A cofferdam is a temporary enclosure built within, or in pairs across, a body of water and constructed to allow the enclosed area to be pumped out, creating a dry work environment for the major work to proceed...
has been constructed for excavation of the tailrace and spillway channel. Secondary concrete and turbine installation will continue through the summer and fall of 2010. The construction camp population varies according to activity level but as of July 2010 there were 635 workers in the construction camp.
Potential future projects
More than 5000 MW of hydroelectric potential could be developed in Manitoba, which includes 1380 MW at the Conawapa site, 630 MW at the Gull (Keeyask) site, and 1000 MW at the Gillam Island site, all on the lower Nelson river. Other sites have been assessed but are not currently under study for development. All of these developments would require a large increase in electric power exports, since Manitoba load growth will not require this capacity for a generation or more. All of these projects require additional HVDC transmission capacity from the North to the South. One such project, Bipole III, has been discussed with communities on the east side of Lake WinnipegLake Winnipeg
Lake Winnipeg is a large, lake in central North America, in the province of Manitoba, Canada, with its southern tip about north of the city of Winnipeg...
, but this area is ecologically and culturally sensitive and power line construction will require extensive environmental impact assessment.
Controversies and issues
Like any other large-scale activity, the operations of Manitoba Hydro have not been without controversy.- In 1976, the Churchill RiverChurchill River (Hudson Bay)The Churchill River is a major river in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Canada. From the head of the Churchill Lake it is 1,609 km long. It was named after John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and governor of the Hudson's Bay Company from 1685 to 1691...
diversion project was set into operation. Flow was diverted by a series of channels and control structures into the Nelson RiverNelson RiverThe Nelson River is a river of north-central North America, in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Its full length is , it has mean discharge of , and has a drainage basin of , of which is in the United States...
. The effects of this diversion on pre-existing water levels and the indigenous CreeCreeThe Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although...
and MétisMétis people (Canada)The Métis are one of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who trace their descent to mixed First Nations parentage. The term was historically a catch-all describing the offspring of any such union, but within generations the culture syncretised into what is today a distinct aboriginal group, with...
people continue to be felt to this day. Negotiations between the affected Northern communities and Manitoba Hydro continue, to discuss mitigation measures and compensation for loss of traditional resource areas and sites.
- The water level of Lake WinnipegLake WinnipegLake Winnipeg is a large, lake in central North America, in the province of Manitoba, Canada, with its southern tip about north of the city of Winnipeg...
is now regulated by Manitoba Hydro as part of the energy generation operations. Some property owners on the southern edge of the lake feel that the levels are now maintained at a higher average level than would be natural, and attribute erosion of their property to the lake level. Manitoba Hydro has pointed out that the regulation project also allows lake level to be lowered, such as during the 1997 floods, thereby preventing significant property damage.
- Residents of the area around the SelkirkSelkirk, ManitobaSelkirk is a city in the western Canadian province of Manitoba, located about 22 km northeast of the provincial capital Winnipeg on the Red River, near . As of the 2006 census, Selkirk had a population of 9,515....
steam plant attributed various environmental damage to the continued operation of this plant, which at the time was fuelled by coalCoalCoal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
. Manitoba Hydro has converted this plant to natural gas, which, while a more expensive and faster-depleting energy source than coal, burns with lower emissions of heavy metals, sulfur dioxide, and carbon dioxide.
- The Province of Manitoba charges Manitoba Hydro a water rental fee proportionate to the total volume of water passed through the generating stations. Increases in this rental have provided an important stream of non-tax revenueNon-tax revenueNon-tax revenue or non-tax receipts are government revenue not generated from taxes. Examples include:* Aid from another level of government - for example, in the United States, federal grants may be considered non-tax revenue to the receiving states, and equalization payments* Aid from abroad *...
to the Provincial government. While at first glance it may seem superfluous for the provincial government to collect such fees from a company it owns, the government argues that such fees help ensure that Manitobans receive a direct return on that portion of energy resources that is exported. More controversially, in 2002-2004 the New Democratic PartyNew Democratic Party of ManitobaThe New Democratic Party of Manitoba is a social-democratic political party in Manitoba, Canada. It is the provincial wing of the federal New Democratic Party, and is a successor to the Manitoba Co-operative Commonwealth Federation...
provincial government collected a direct dividend from Manitoba Hydro. This was criticized by the provincial opposition parties for various reasons but mostly as evidence that Hydro rates were unnecessarily high with the excess amounting to a hidden taxHidden taxA hidden tax is a tax that is not visible to the taxpayer. These taxes can raise prices of goods and lower salaries for workers. Hidden taxes, although hidden, can decrease the purchasing power of individuals significantly....
.
- Manitoba Hydro has studied new HVDC transmission lines to run along the east side of Lake Winnipeg. The additional transmission capacity would be required to develop stations at Gull (Keeyask), and Conawapa. This plan would offset the concentration of transmission lines in the Interlake area (west of Lake Winnipeg and east of Lake Manitoba), and would provide additional security against transmission failures due to adverse weather or other causes. However, this area has no roads and very little development. Some environmentalists argue that this vast area of boreal forest should not be crossed by a transmission corridor. If roads were built at the same time as the lines, these roads would allow year-round access to small First Nation communities east of the lake; some people feel this would have more adverse than beneficial effects for these communities. From an engineering perspective, there is no connection between building a new transmission line east of Lake Winnipeg, and building a road east of the lake. In May 2005, the provincial government announced that it would not consider any route along the east side of Lake Winnipeg, even though the alternative routes through the Interlake region or west of Lake Manitoba would extend the transmission lines, and increase cost. The western route was chosen by the government to protect the proposed UNESCO biosphere reserve on the east side by local First Nations reserves called Pimachiowin AkiPimachiowin AkiPimachiowin Aki is a large proposed UNESCO biosphere reserve located in the Boreal Forest that covers parts of Manitoba and Ontario. The proposed project area includes over is in similar size to the area of Denmark and would mean that it would be larger than 100 other countries in the world...
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- A transmission line down the west side of the province could also have adverse environmental effects: several caribou herds use the area near The Pas, several ecological reserves http://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/parks/ecological_reserves/ occur on the west side of the province (Lake Winnipegosis Salt Flats, Birch River http://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/pai/mb_network/birch/index.html), as well as UNESCO's Riding Mountain Biosphere Reserve http://www.unesco.org/mabdb/br/brdir/directory/biores.asp?mode=all&code=CAN+04, three provincial parks (Duck Mountain, Clearwater and Kettle http://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/parks/popular_parks/index.html), one Park Reserve (Walter Cook Caves http://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation///parks/public_consult/pdf/walter_cook_upland_caves.pdf), one Provincial Forest (Porcupine Hills), and two Wildlife Management Areas (Tom Lamb WMA and Saskeram WMA http://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/wildlife/managing/wma_northwestern_map.html).
Tritschler commission inquiry of 1979
Concerns about the economy and efficiency of Manitoba Hydro's development program led the provincial government to form a commission of inquiry in 1977. Project cost overruns, and expanded capital spending during a time of declining electricity demand raised serious doubts about the timing of the Lake Winnipeg Regulation project and the development of projects along the Nelson River. The Tritschler Commission (named for Justice George Eric Tritschler (1901–1993) ) delivered its final report in December 1979, which made 51 recommendations on Manitoba Hydro governance, planning, financing and operations.Comparison of Manitoba Hydro to other utilities
Manitoba Hydro is unusual in North America because it is the sole commercial provider of electrical power in the province of Manitoba. It is a Crown corporation closely regulated by the Provincial government. This status arose because of the history of electrification in the Province, where early private commercial developers required a large initial return on investment owing to the high risks of the projects. This limited the economic benefits that electrification would bring. Manitoba Hydro is required by its regulating legislation to give priority to public benefit over profit.Another unusual feature of Manitoba Hydro is that it is a completely integrated electrical utility, with generation, transmission, and distribution operations. This means that Manitoba Hydro can consider the total system cost and benefits of any new development, rather than, for example, building generation capacity that relies on a second party for transmission. An example of this approach was seen at the Clean Environment Commission public hearings for the recent Wuskwatim Generation Project and the Wuskwatim Transmission Project, in which environmental reviews for both the generating station and associated transmission facilities were carried out at the same time.
Manitoba Hydro's mandate to serve dictates that it builds enough transmission and generating firm capacity to serve the Manitoba home market first. However, in a typical year, more energy is available than the firm capacity. This can be economically exported from the Province. Since this energy is typically sold on short-term contracts or even on a spot market
Spot market
The spot market or cash market is a public financial market, in which financial instruments or commodities are traded for immediate delivery. It contrasts with a futures market in which delivery is due at a later date...
, the returns on these sales increase Manitoba Hydro's retained earnings, allowing domestic rates to be stable and low.
Since Manitoba Hydro is a Crown Corporation paying no dividends and not obligated to provide a return on investment to shareholders, energy costs to industrial and residential consumers are lower than they would otherwise be. These lower costs help offset some of the higher costs of doing business in a region far from large markets.
As a Provincial Crown Corporation, investment decisions by Manitoba Hydro are heavily influenced by political and economic goals of the provincial government. For example, in the 1986 Manitoba provincial election, the incumbent New Democratic Party
New Democratic Party of Manitoba
The New Democratic Party of Manitoba is a social-democratic political party in Manitoba, Canada. It is the provincial wing of the federal New Democratic Party, and is a successor to the Manitoba Co-operative Commonwealth Federation...
government announced accelerated construction of the Limestone project, with promises of increased employment as a result. Limestone GS was estimated to create 6000 person-years of direct employment, 11,000 of indirect employment over the construction period of eight years. As part of the contract for the ten turbine-generator units, Canadian General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
agreed to invest $10,000,000 CAD in Manitoba business operations, and to obtain at least 15 per cent of installation labour locally.
The company today
Manitoba Hydro had 6018 employees at the end of the 2008 fiscal year. Capital assets were valued at nearly $12.4 billion CAD.
In fiscal 2008 (ending March 31, 2009), the total generation was 35.3 terawatt-hours. Manitoba domestic consumption was 21.1 TW·h with a net of 9.59 TW·h exported. In 2001 generation was nearly 32.7 terawatt-hours, allowing net export of 12 TW·h to customers in the United States, Ontario and Saskatchewan. A terawatt-hour is the average annual consumption of 70,000 Manitoba residences, 14,100 kW·h per year each. The peak load was 4,477 MW on January 15, 2009, an increase of 4.81% over the previous year.
In fiscal 2008, Manitoba Hydro obtained 0.95 % of its total generated electrical energy from fossil fuel at the Brandon generating station, and 1.09% from wind energy purchased from the St. Leon project. About 0.3% of energy distributed in the province was imported.
A subsidiary company, Manitoba Hydro International, provides electric power consulting services. Manitoba Hydro also operates a high-voltage DC laboratory. Meridium Power, a subsidiary company, markets a line of written-pole AC electric motor
Electric motor
An electric motor converts electrical energy into mechanical energy.Most electric motors operate through the interaction of magnetic fields and current-carrying conductors to generate force...
s suitable for heavy loads on single-phase systems and for power quality improvement. W.I.R.E. Services supplies services to transmission line operators for re-rating and verification of transmission line capacity.
As of September 2009, the company has completed its new headquarters building, the Manitoba Hydro Tower
Manitoba Hydro Tower
Manitoba Hydro Place is the headquarters building of Manitoba Hydro, the electric power and natural gas utility in the province of Manitoba, Canada — and is located at 360 Portage Avenue, downtown Winnipeg....
on Portage Avenue. About 1650 Hydro employees work in this building. It is the 4th tallest building in the city at 112.5 meters to the top of solar chimney
Solar chimney
A solar chimney — often referred to as a thermal chimney — is a way of improving the natural ventilation of buildings by using convection of air heated by passive solar energy...
with a total of 22 stories and 690,000 square feet (64,100 square metres) floor space. The building is intended to be one of the most energy-efficient building of its size in North America, and to consume 60% less energy than the national building code requirements.
Financial performance
| 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | |
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| Debt/Equity ratio | 73:27 | 77:23 | 73:27 | 80:20 | 81:19 | 85:15 | 87:13 | 80:20 | 77:23 | 80:20 |
See also
- Crown corporation
- Electric powerElectric powerElectric power is the rate at which electric energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt.-Circuits:Electric power, like mechanical power, is represented by the letter P in electrical equations...
- Environmental concerns with electricity generationEnvironmental concerns with electricity generationThe environmental impact of electricity generation is significant because modern society uses large amounts of electrical power. This power is normally generated at power plants that convert some other kind of energy into electrical power...
- HydroelectricityHydroelectricityHydroelectricity is the term referring to electricity generated by hydropower; the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy...
- List of Canadian electric utilities
- Nelson River Hydroelectric ProjectNelson River Hydroelectric ProjectThe Nelson River Hydroelectric Project refers to the construction of a series of dams and hydroelectric power plants on the Nelson River in Northern Manitoba, Canada...
- Manitoba Electrical MuseumManitoba Electrical Museumis a museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada dedicated to the electrical history of Manitoba. It is a volunteer organization run by retired members of Manitoba Hydro.-Collection:...
- Electricity sector in Canada
- List of hydroelectric power station failures
Further reading
- L. A. Bateman, "The Manitoba Utility Story - Day 1 to Year 1974", paper in Canadian Electricity Association, "Proceedings of the Eighty-Fourth Annual Meeting 1974", Banff Springs Hotel, Banff, Alberta
- L. A. Bateman, "A History of Electric Power Development in Manitoba" printed in the Winter 2005 edition of "IEEE Canadian Review"
- Manitoba Historical Society History of the Electrical Industry in Manitoba
- Manitoba Hydro Annual Report 2003
- http://www.hydro.mb.ca Manitoba Hydro Corporate Web Site
- Manitoba Clean Environment Commission Web Site
- The Manitoba Hydro Act H190, CCSM
- http://www.hvdc.ca High Voltage DC Laboratory
- Ecological impacts of Manitoba Hydro operations on Hudson Bay, includes a map of Manitoba Hydro generation facilities
- Alan Wyatt, Electric Power: Challenges and Choices, Book Press Ltd., Toronto, (1986) ISBN 0-920650-00-7
- Annual report for the year ended March 31, 2005
Manitoba Hydro publications