Nelson River Hydroelectric Project
The 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. The project began to take shape in the late 1950s, with the planning and construction of the Kelsey dam and hydroelectric power station, and later was expanded to include the diversion of the upper Churchill River into the Nelson River and the transformation of Lake Winnipeg, the world's 11th largest freshwater lake, into a hydroelectric reservoir. The project is owned and operated by Manitoba Hydro, the electrical utility in the province.
Several sites on the Nelson River, with potential of millions of horsepower, had been identified as early as 1911, but transmission of power to population centers in the south was beyond the state of the art of electric power transmission at that time. Between 1955 and 1960, studies were carried out to determine what resources would be available for future hydraulic generation in Manitoba. 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 Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Control dams and excavated channels have transformed Lake Winnipeg into a 25 000 km² reservoir for the Nelson hydroelectric system.
The great distance between generating sites on the Nelson River and load centres in southern Manitoba required the use of high-voltage, direct current (HVDC) electric power transmission lines to bring the energy to market. When these lines began operation as the Nelson River Bipole in 1972, they were the longest and highest-voltage direct current lines in the world. The Dorsey converter station is 26 km northwest of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
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