Hydropower converts the natural flow of water into electricity to light our homes and power our industries. The energy is produced by the fall of water turning the blades of a turbine. The turbine is connected to a generator that converts the energy into electricity.
The amount of electricity a hydropower installation can produce depends upon both the quantity of water passing through a turbine (the volume of water flow) and the height from which the water falls (the amount of head). The greater the combination of flow and the head, the more electrical power produced.
There are different types and sizes of hydropower installations in Canada, ranging from micro hydro plants that provide electricity to only a few homes to mega installations that can power large cities.
Some hydropower facilities include dams to increase the head of a waterfall or to control the flow of water, and reservoirs to store the water for future energy use (storage dam), while others produce electricity by immediately using a river's water flow.
The Kokish Hydroelectric Project will be
Run-of-River
Run-of-River projects generate power by diverting a portion of a river’s flow into an intake, and conveying it along a pipeline to a powerhouse where turbines attached to generators turn it into electricity. All diverted water is immediately returned to the river via a tailrace. Run-of-river projects do not involve the impoundment of water beyond the small amount required to keep the intake pipe submerged. The amount of water diverted from the river varies throughout the year, depending on the flows required to protect fish and fish habitat in the river’s diversion section, between the intake structure and the tailrace outlet.
Hydropower has always been at the heart of the electricity supply system in British Columbia. Renewable, clean, steady, dependable, familiar, hydropower is an essential part of our nation’s natural wealth and our way of life.