Rankine Generating Station

The Rankine Generating Station is a former hydro-electric generating station along the Canadian side of the Niagara River in Niagara Falls, Ontario, slightly downstream from the older Toronto Power Generating Station. It was built in for the Canadian Niagara Power Company and named for company's founder William Birch Rankine, a New York City lawyer originally from Geneva, New York who died three days after the station opened in 1905 and renamed in 1927.[1] Acquirred by Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation in 1950 and in 2002,[2] the station became a wholly owned subsidiary of FortisOntario (and part of Canadian owned Fortis Inc.).[3]

Generating capacity

The station contained twelve vertical axle, 25 Hertz generators rated at 8320 kVA each for a total generating capacity of 100 MVA.

Station closure

The Beaux-Arts architecture station was closed in 2009 and handed over to the Niagara Parks Commission.[4] Reasons for the closure were:

  • The station produced 25 Hz power, and would have needed to be retrofitted to the North American standard of 60 Hz
  • The turbines and generators had drifted out of alignment due to movement of the rock on which the station was built

The Rankine station's water rights, along with those of two other nearby generating stations, were reallocated to the Sir Adam Beck stations a few kilometres downstream (see also Niagara Tunnel Project).

William B. Rankine Generating Station Bridge

William B. Rankine Generating Station Bridge is a five span stone arch bridge that cross the water outlet from the power station north of Fraser Hill. The main bridge carries traffic on Niagara Parkway and smaller pedestrian bridge is located at the mouth of the outlet on the shores of the Niagara River.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.niagarafrontier.com/rankine.html
  2. ↑ FortisOntario, Historical Background, retrieved 2010-12-28
  3. ↑ FortisOntario, http://www.fortisontario.com/services_cnp.asp, retrieved 2010-12-28 Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. ↑ Fortis Ontario (2005-07-27), Historic Niagara Electrical Generating Station celebrates 100 years of generating power (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-11, retrieved 2010-12-28

Coordinates: 43°04′28″N 79°04′43″W / 43.0745°N 79.0787°W / 43.0745; -79.0787


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.