Keeyask Generating Station produces first electricity for Manitoba grid mysteinbach.ca - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mysteinbach.ca Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
On Thursday, Hydro president and CEO Jay Grewal said nearly 98 per cent of the corporation s electricity is generated using renewable hydropower and the electricity now coming from the 695-megawatt station adds to that. The energy from Keeyask will help preserve that advantage for decades to come, while also helping to keep electricity rates for Manitoba customers among the lowest on the continent, Grewal said in Hydro s news release.
The site is expected to have seven units producing an average of 4,400 gigawatt hours a year, the release says, making it Manitoba s fourth-biggest generating station.
There are still about 600 people working at Keeyask to bring the remaining six units into service, which will happen one-by-one over the next year, the release says.
A partnership between Manitoba Hydro and Tataskweyak Cree Nation, War Lake First Nation, York Factory First Nation and Fox Lake Cree Nation, known collectively as the Keeyask Hydropower Limited Partnership, construction of Keeyask began in 2014. Originally planned to have a $6.5 billion budget and to be in service by 2019, the project is tracking to meet its revised budget of $8.7 billion and coming into service six months earlier than its revised in-service date of August of this year. Keeyask is a 695-megawatt station in the Nelson River and will have seven units producing an average of 4,400 gigawatt hours of electricity annually when it is completed, Manitoba Hydro says, which will make it the fourth-largest generating station in the province.