Churchill Falls - Power from of the Project

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Transmission:

• Churchill Falls power is transmitted on wires supported on V-shaped towers with heights up to 51 m (170 ft). These towers are the largest of this type in the world and were chosen because of the rough terrain. There is a 216 m (710 ft) wide cleared right-of-way for the three power transmission lines to Quebec Hydro. Each of these three lines has approximately 400 towers traversing the 203 km (126 miles).
• These transmission wires span 1,828 m or 1.8 KM (6,000 ft or 1.1 mile) across the Churchill River. Including sag, these wires measure 2,286m (7,500 ft). These are the same type of special conductors and heavy-duty towers which were developed by Hydro-Quebec to cross the Saguenay River.
• CFLCo built three 203 km (126 miles) transmission lines from Churchill Falls to the Quebec border. From there the power is transmitted on Quebec Hydro power lines another 409 km (254 miles) to Manicouagan and Outardes. Eventually the power travels over 1,208 km (750 miles) from Churchill Falls to Montreal. From there it may stay in Canada or be sold to the US.
  
  

Generated Output:

• Churchill Falls is the largest underground hydroelectric complex in the world.
• At the time of completion, it was the largest hydroelectric facility in the world.
• It is currently the sixth largest producer of hydroelectric power in the world.
• There are only 265 staff members to keep the facility, power lines and company-owned town maintained.
• It has eleven power generating units with a rated capacity of 5,225 MW which translates into over 7 million horsepower. This is the equivalent of 158 thousand barrels of oil per day. It was upgraded to 5,428 in 1985.
• Each generator turns 200 revolutions per minute making the speed at the outside edge 348 km (216 miles) per hour. There are governors and monitoring equipment to insure this speed remains constant. The volume of water is either increased or decreased to maintain the 200 revolutions per minute. The more demand on the system, the greater the volume of water required to turn the turbines.
• If there is going to be dramatic increases or decreases of energy a lag time of 48 hours must be given to CFLCo by the customer.
• Newfoundland and Hydro Quebec recently announced a joint agreement to develop the Lower Churchill Project. This is, in fact, a number of small projects which includes a 2,100 MW dam at Gull Island, a 900 MW dam at Muskrat Falls, 1,000 MW upgrade to the existing facility at Churchill Falls. This would increase the present power production capability by an extra 4,000 KW for a total of 9,428 MW. This project includes diverting two rivers from Quebec, the Saint-Jean and the Romaine, into the present catchment area. This power would be used in Newfoundland and the US. At $13 billion dollars, it is the second largest hydro project currently being developed in the world.
• Currently Churchill Falls makes almost 1% of the world's hydroelectric power. The world's total combined capacity at present is 675,000 MW which produces 2.3 trillion KWH of electricity, or the equivalent of 3.6 billion barrels of oil.