McCormick Dam

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The hydropower plant McCormick ( McCormick French Centrale ) is a storage power plant in the Canadian province of Québec. It is located in the Côte -Nord, about three kilometers west of Baie- Comeau and just before the mouth of the Rivière Manicouagan. Together with the neighboring hydroelectric plant Manic -1, it uses the Réservoir Manic 1 as a reservoir. The power plant has eight Francis turbines, the installed capacity is 304 MW at a height of 37.8 meters.

History

Is named the plant after Robert R. McCormick (1880-1955), the owner and publisher of the Chicago Tribune. In 1936 he built a paper mill that its started operations two years later. He was also the impetus for the founding of the city Baie- Comeau in the previously pristine areas. In order to supply the paper mill and other industrial plants with enough energy, he agreed a partnership with the aluminum company Alcoa. 1951 began the construction of the hydroelectric plant, which was put into operation on 18 July 1953.

McCormick's share of 60 % of the Manicouagan Power Company later became part of the paper company AbitibiBowater, while Alcoa maintains its share of 40 % today. Issued back in the 1950s, the first capacity expansion, made ​​possible by the construction of a regulatory structure at the Rivière Toulnustouc by Hydro-Québec in 1959. Since the power plant McCormick produced exclusively for its owners and not for general use, it was the nationalization of Quebec electricity industry in 1963 exempted.

After AbitibiBowater bankruptcy protection had to apply to stave off bankruptcy, the 60- percent stake in the power plant McCormick was sold in December 2009 for 615 million CAD ​​to Hydro -Québec.