La Grande-1 generating station

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The hydroelectric power plant La Grande -1 (French Centrale La Grande- 1) is a hydroelectric power plant in the Canadian province of Québec. It is located in the region Jamesie on Réservoir La Grande 1, a reservoir on the river La Grande Rivière. The estuary located 37 kilometers west, the hydroelectric power station Robert - Bourassa (formerly La Grande -2) 80 km to the east.

The power plant is part of the James Bay hydroelectric project and has twelve turbines. The installed capacity of generators is 1436 MW, the drop height of 27.5 meters. Operators of the power plant is the Société d' énergie de la Baie James ( SEBJ ), a subsidiary of the state-owned power utility Hydro-Québec.

History

Although the plant had already been announced in 1972, but due to the complexity of the project, it could only be put into operation two decades later. The originally planned power plant site was highly controversial. The ansaässigen in the region Cree erwirkten on judicial means a planning stop and forced the provincial government to negotiate. In the 1975 agreement, signed the James Bay and Quebec North was agreed that the power plant to build 34 km further upstream. The agreement also stipulates saw ten turbines with a capacity of 910 MW.

Meanwhile, led the completion of further parts of the Baie- James - hydro power plant to the fact that the amount of water in the river rose sharply. The on the Île de Fort George, an island in the estuary, located Cree reserve had to be abandoned due to the heavy erosion. The Cree living there moved in 1981 in the eight kilometers away, on the left bank newly constructed settlement to Chisasibi.

With the agreement signed on April 14, 1978 Convention de Chisasibi, an additional protocol to the 1975 agreement, the planned power plant capacity was increased to 1140 MW. Although the construction of power stations had meanwhile been postponed, was erected in 1979 on the future site of a diversion channel. With a further supplementary agreement, the Cree and the provincial government agreed on 6 November 1986 the installation of two additional turbines. Construction finally began in 1988, the plant was commissioned in 1994 and 1995.