Niagara Falls hydroelectric generating plants

Niagara Falls hydroelectric generating plants are the hydroelectric powerplants in the vicinity of the Niagara Falls, a large geological feature which straddles the joint borders of Canada and the United States of America. Since 1882 a number of hydroelectric plants have generated electricity in both countries, including:

Province of Ontario, Canada

• Niagara Falls & River Railway Power House, operating in Niagara Falls, Ontario's Queen Victoria Park between 1892 and 1932, supplying electricity to its trains operating between Queenston and Chippawa.
• William Birch Rankine Power Station, opened in 1905 by the Canadian Niagara Power Company which was founded in 1892. It was purchased by the Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation in 1950, and then by the Fortis Incorporated Power Group in 2000, after which it was retired from service following an agreement with Ontario Power Generation, the provincial utility.
• Ontario Power Company, also opened in 1905, purchased by the Ontario Hydro Power Commission in 1917 and then decommissioned in 1999.
• Electrical Development Company (EDC), later named the Toronto Power Company, operating between 1906 and 1973.
• Sir Adam Beck Hydroelectric Generating Stations, are two hydroelectric generating stations in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, opened in 1922 and originally named the Queenston Chippawa Power Station. It was renamed after Sir Adam Beck in 1950, with significant expansions in 1954 and 2013. The two major power stations at the site are called Adam Beck I and Adam Beck II.

State of New York, USA

• Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company of Niagara Falls, N.Y., was the first company to generate electricity (in minor amounts) from Niagara Falls in 1882, but fell into bankruptcy in about two years.
• Schoellkopf Hydraulic Power Company was also created about 1882. Its individual powerplants at various sites near the falls were named Schoellkopf Power Station No. 1, 2, 3A and 3B. In 1918 the Hydraulic Power Company was merged with the Niagara Falls Power Company owned by Edward Dean Adams.
• Niagara River Hydraulic Tunnel Power & Sewer Company, chartered in 1886 but not operating a powerplant until its subsidiary, the Cataract Construction Corporation began generating in 1894. It was re-organized in 1899, becoming the Niagara Falls Power Company.
• Edward Dean Adams Power Plant of Niagara Falls, N.Y., belonging to the Niagara Falls Power Company. It was the first large-scale generating plant in the world, built in 1895. Its earliest facility was called Niagara Power Station No. 1.
• Robert Moses Niagara Hydroelectric Power Station is the current major U.S. hydroelectric powerplant near Niagara Falls, N.Y., physically located in Lewiston, N.Y., and opened in 1961. A separate secondary generating facility which operates in conjunction with the Robert Moses Power Station is the:
  • Lewiston Pump-Generating Plant, a pumped-storage hydroelectric generating facility

References

• Niagara Falls: History of Power, NiagaraFrontier.com website, updated November 11, 2012.