The Water and Electricity Authority of British Columbia, Canada has officially launched the construction of the sixth unit of the Revelstoke hydroelectric power station, which is the largest first project to be implemented in the province's current hydropower upgrade plan. Unlike the conventional heavy investment mode of newly built power stations, this expansion is fully implemented based on the reserved space in the existing factory area, without the need for a new dam. After being put into operation, it will add 500MW of clean hydropower installed capacity to the province's power grid, directly promoting an increase of about 7% in the province's power supply capacity. The implementation of this project marks the substantial execution stage of BC Hydro's energy expansion strategy that prioritizes inventory.

Ultra low ecological impact expansion plan with zero new dam additions

The Reflestok Hydroelectric Power Station is located on the banks of the Columbia River in southeastern British Columbia Province. Currently, it has 5 operating generator units and a total installed capacity of over 2400MW. It is a key peak shaving power station under BC Hydro. In the early stages of power station construction, a forward-looking installation station for the sixth unit was reserved, and all construction operations were strictly limited to the existing power station's land red line.

The project only requires the addition of a steel pressure pipeline to the dam body, the hoisting of a new generator set in the existing machine room, and the simultaneous upgrading of supporting transformers and switch equipment. There is no need for additional land acquisition or excavation of new storage areas throughout the process, and the disturbance to the surrounding watershed ecology is minimized, completely avoiding the environmental disputes commonly encountered in new hydropower projects.

Core anchor point of 1000MW stock upgrade cluster

The Revelstok Unit 6 is not an isolated single point project, but a core component of BC Hydro's "Drive Growth, Create Opportunities" strategy. The province has completely abandoned the previous plan of selecting multiple locations for new hydropower projects and instead opted to prioritize activating the idle potential of existing assets to achieve clean power capacity expansion at the lowest cost.

In addition to the 500MW expansion, BC Hydro is also simultaneously advancing the modernization of the W.A.C. Bennett Dam unit, with an expected addition of 100MW of installed capacity. The upgrade and renovation of the Maika power station and multiple small and medium-sized power stations will contribute over 400MW of capacity. After the implementation of the entire upgrade plan, the province will accumulate over 1000MW of clean water and electricity installed capacity, which perfectly matches the increasing demand for electricity brought about by the popularization of electric vehicles and the landing of data centers in the next decade.

Energy investment drives regional economic cycle in reverse

Currently, about 60 workers have entered the construction site for the project, and it is expected that the on-site labor scale will reach 180 people during the peak construction period in 2029. The entire cycle will drive approximately 60 million Canadian dollars in expenditure in the local procurement of goods, materials, and services, with a large number of orders directly tilted towards local and indigenous owned enterprises. Keywords: hydropower project, hydropower expansion

According to the plan, this new unit will be officially put into operation in December 2032. As a cost-effective power grid peak shaving resource, it will significantly enhance the operational flexibility of the entire province's power grid, providing stable support during intermittent fluctuations in wind and photovoltaic output, and laying a solid energy foundation for BC to undertake the transfer of computing power industry from the West Coast of North America in the future.Editor/Cheng Liting