At a glance
- OPG's R.H. Saunders Generating Station first went into service July 5, 1958, on the St. Lawrence River.
- The 1,045-megawatt station is part of the sprawling Moses-Saunders Power Dam, shared with the U.S.
- Construction of the power project in the 1950s was a major feat of engineering, culminating decades of negotiations and political setbacks.
In Cornwall, R.H. Saunders Generating Station (GS), Ontario's second-largest hydroelectric station, is marking its 65th year of generating clean, reliable power for the province.
Aerial view of the Moses-Saunders Power Dam. OPG's R.H. Saunders GS is celebrating its 65th anniversary.
The 16-unit, 1,045-megawatt station has been producing power reliably and safely on the St. Lawrence River since first going into service on July 5, 1958. It is capable of powering more than 800,000 homes and currently meets up to 5% of Ontario's power needs.
As part of the larger one-kilometre-long Moses-Saunders Power Dam that spans the river, R.H. Saunders GS shares the structure with the Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Project station, operated independently on the U.S. side by the New York Power Authority (NYPA).
"This station has played an important role in Ontario's growth over the past 65 years and will continue to support the province's growth and electrification efforts," said Greg Geisler, Work Centre Manager for the station. "We are investing now through unit overhauls to secure the station's future."
At the time, the building of the overall St. Lawrence Power Project was a major political and engineering feat.
Since the early 20th century, OPG's predecessor company, Ontario Hydro, had sought to harness the St. Lawrence River's tremendous hydroelectric power potential, in partnership with the U.S. The venture had been talked about and studied for nearly 40 years, but political setbacks repeatedly stalled progress.
U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon, Prince Philip, and Queen Elizabeth II at the opening ceremony of the Moses-Saunders Power Dam in 1959.
That was the case until Robert Hood Saunders, former mayor of Toronto, chairman of Ontario Hydro, and namesake of OPG's station, arrived on the scene.
Through his tireless advocacy of the project, shovels were finally placed in the ground in August 1954 after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for construction to begin earlier that summer.
Development was jointly undertaken by Ontario Hydro and NYPA, with a total cost at the time of about $600 million, jointly shared by the two power agencies. Completing the structures on both sides of the river required 2,432,000 cubic metres of concrete, 1,800,000 metric tons of sand, 25,200 metric tons of structural steel, and the efforts of more than 11,500 people at peak construction.
Many communities along the St. Lawrence River, including the Mohawks of Akwesasne, were affected as the project required flooding land along a 56-kilometre stretch of the river's north shore. In all, about 6,500 people were relocated from affected villages, including Iroquois, Farran's Point, Dickinson's Landing, and others.
One of the massive headworks cranes at R.H. Saunders GS.
As part of rehabilitation efforts, Ontario Hydro built hundreds of new homes, schools, shopping centres, and other buildings in the new and relocated communities and surrounding townships.
Ultimately, the project was completed ahead of schedule. A friendship monument was unveiled at the centre of the dam on June 27, 1959, in an opening ceremony attended by Queen Elizabeth II and U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon to celebrate the partnership between the U.S. and Canada.
Since the dam went into service, OPG and NYPA have worked closely under a Joint Works Agreement to not only share the St. Lawrence River, but also maintenance practices, safety experiences, and common operational costs and duties, all while producing power independently at two separate generating stations.
"Building this dam and generating stations required unprecedented cooperation between the U.S. and Canada, and culminated decades of negotiations to get the project started," said Geisler. "Today, we continue to work in the same spirit of cooperation under our unique partnership with NYPA to manage and operate this power dam and associated control structures."
The massive turbine runner is pulled up from R.H. Saunders GS's G9 unit, which is undergoing an overhaul.
Currently, OPG employs a staff of about 110 people at R.H. Saunders GS, most of whom live in the Cornwall area. The nearby Saunders Hydro Dam Visitor Centre serves the community as an educational learning space and museum capturing the station's history and development.
To secure many more decades of reliable generation, the station is currently undergoing a major overhaul of its 16 units. The first unit, G9, is now being refurbished and expected to be completed by early 2024. Overhauls on the rest of the hydro giant's units are set to occur in each subsequent year to wrap up the project by around 2039.
The station was last overhauled between the 1990s and early 2000s.
