Queenston-Chippawa Hydroelectric Plant (Sir Adam Beck Hydroelectric Generating Station)
Completes 1925
Queenston-Chippawa Hydro-Electric Development National Historic Site of Canada is located at Queenston, Ontario, at the Niagara Falls. Built between 1917-1925, it was the first large hydro-electric project in the world, and was created by Ontario’s Hydro-Electric Power Commission (HEPC). The HEPC created the project in response to increasing urban and industrial demands for more electrical power in Toronto and southwestern Ontario. The site consists of a very large crescent-shaped site stretching approximately 22 kilometres from the mouth of the Welland River where it meets the Niagara River, through the city of Niagara Falls to the hydro-electric generating station situated on the Niagara River between the Whirlpool and Queenston. Official recognition refers to the entire development associated with the power project from its intake at the junction of the Welland River and Niagara River to the outtake at the Sir Adam Beck No. 1 Generating Station near Queenston including the gatehouse, penstocks, and powerhouse on their footprints.
source:
http://www.nflibrary.ca/
HERITAGE VALUE
Queenston-Chippawa Hydro-Electric Development was designated a national historic site of Canada in 1990 because:
- it claimed to be the first true hydro-electric mega-project in the world
- the design of the Queenston-Chippawa installation presented unique problems and required construction equipment, power conversion units, and a power canal of a size not seen prior to their use at Queenston-Chippawa.
Also at the top of the Horseshoe Falls The Toronto Hydro Power Plant built in 1906, a much smaller but historically important project.
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