Churchill Falls Generating Station

Churchill Falls Generating Station
Location of Churchill Falls Generating Station in Newfoundland and Labrador
Location	Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
Coordinates	53°31′43.45″N 63°57′57.15″W / 53.5287361°N 63.9658750°W / 53.5287361; -63.9658750
Construction began	1967
Opening date	1974
Construction cost	946 million CAD
Owner(s)	CF(L)Co
Dam and spillways
Type of dam	88 rock-filled dikes
Impounds	Churchill River
Length	64 km (40 mi)
Dam volume	2,200,000 m3 (2,900,000 cu yd)
Reservoir
Creates	Smallwood Reservoir Ossokmanuan Reservoir
Total capacity	32.64 km3 (1.153×1012 cu ft)
Catchment area	71,750 km2 (27,700 sq mi)
Surface area	6,988 km2 (2,698 sq mi)
Power Station
Operator(s)	CF(L)Co
Commission date	1971-74
Hydraulic head	312.4 m (1,025 ft)
Turbines	11
Installed capacity	5,428 MW
Capacity factor	73.6%
Annual generation	35,000 GWh (130,000 TJ)
Website nalcorenergy.com/nalcor-operations/churchill-falls/

The Churchill Falls Generating Station is a hydroelectric underground power station in Labrador. At 5,428 MW, it is the sixteenth largest in the world, and the second-largest in Canada, after the Robert-Bourassa generating station in northwestern Quebec.

Rather than a single large dam, the plant's reservoir is contained by 88 dykes, totalling 64 km in length. The Smallwood Reservoir has a capacity of 33 cubic kilometres in a catchment area of about 72,000 square kilometres, an area larger than the Republic of Ireland. It drops over 305 metres to the site of the plant's 11 turbines.

The plant's power house was hewn from solid granite 300 metres underground. It is about 300 metres long and as high as a 15-story building.^[1]

The station cost almost a billion Canadian dollars to build in 1970. Commissioned from 1971 to 1974, it is owned and operated by the Churchill Falls Labrador Corporation Limited, a joint venture between Nalcor Energy (65.8%) and Hydro-Québec (34.2%). Workers at the station live in the purpose-built company town of Churchill Falls.

The ongoing Lower Churchill Project is a joint venture between Nalcor and Emera^[2] to develop the remaining 35 percent of the Churchill River basin.^[3][4][5]