HYDRO ACHIEVEMENTS

With suitable generating sites farther away from major urban centres, Hydro built the first 735 kv lines, celebrated as one of the top 10 achievements by Canadian engineers in the 20th century. Transmission at 735 kv made it possible to develop remote areas not only in Quebec but around the world.

Once capable of sending power efficiently over long distances, Hydro-quebec built three hydropower megaprojects in succession:

The Manic-outardes complex, an undertaking that involved many world firsts, including the Daniel-johnson dam, the world’s largest multiple-arch-and-buttress dam.

The Manic-2 dam (Jean-lesage generating station), the biggest hollow-joint gravity dam.

The Manic-3 dam (René-lévesque generating station), with a double cut-off wall that reaches a depth of 120 metres in the riverbed.

Next came the Churchill Falls development (today with installed capacity of 5,428 MW), built in Labrador, and what Hydro called the “Project of the Century” — the La Grande complex in the James Bay region (1970— 1996). Construction methods had to be adapted the extreme conditions of the north. It also meant the utility had to hammer out agreements with aboriginal communities and take into consideration environmental issues to protect Cree and Inuit fishing and hunting.