The McCormick generating station is a dam and power station built on the Manicouagan river by the ''Quebec & Ontario Paper Company'' and the ''Canadian British Aluminium Company'' west of

Baie-Comeau Baie-Comeau (; 2021 city population 20,687; CA population 26,643) is a city located approximately north-east of Quebec City in the Côte-Nord region of the province of Quebec, Canada. It is located on the shores of the Saint Lawrence River nea ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada. It is named after colonel

Robert R. McCormick Robert Rutherford "Colonel" McCormick (July 30, 1880 – April 1, 1955) was an American lawyer, businessman and Anti-war movement, anti-war activist. A member of the McCormick family of Chicago, McCormick became a lawyer, Republican Party (Unite ...

(1880–1955), who owned and published the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

''. At the time of its commissioning in 1952, the plant contained two 55,000-hp (41.8 MW) turbines, which provided power to the

paper mill A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags, and other ingredients. Prior to the invention and adoption of the Fourdrinier machine and other types of paper machine that use an endless belt, ...

, then owned by the American newspaper. The McCormick plant sits next to

Hydro-Québec Hydro-Québec is a public utility that manages the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in the Canadian province of Quebec, as well as the export of power to portions of the Northeast United States. It was established by the ...

Manic-1 Manic-1 is a hydroelectric power station and dam at the mouth of the Manicouagan River west of Baie-Comeau, Quebec, Canada. The power station was commissioned between 1966 and 1967 and producing 184 MW, it is the smallest of the Manicouagan-Outar ...

generating station and the two plants share the same

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

. Its installed capacity has expanded over time to its current 335 MW capacity.

History

As early as 1955, the Manicouagan Power Company planned its first expansion by adding three 60,000 h.p. (44.8 MW) turbines, increasing the rated capacity to 292,400 h.p. (218 MW). The plant expansion was facilitated by a C$29 million regulation dam built by Hydro-Québec downstream from Sainte-Anne Lake, on the Toulnustouc River and the upgraded facility was completed in 1959. Subsequently, two additional 62.5-MW units were installed at the station in 1964, bringing the total installed capacity to 343 MW. Various upgrade projects have increased the installed capacity to 379 MW. For over 50 years, McCormick generated power for the Baie-Comeau pulp and paper and

aluminium smelting Aluminium smelting is the process of extracting aluminium from its oxide, alumina, generally by the Hall-Héroult process. Alumina is extracted from the ore bauxite by means of the Bayer process at an List of alumina refineries, alumina refinery. ...

operations of its two

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal own ...

AbitibiBowater Resolute Forest Products (French: ''Produits forestiers Résolu''), formerly known as AbitibiBowater Inc., is a Canada-headquartered pulp and paper company. Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Resolute was formed in 2007 by the merger of Bowater ...

(60%) and

Alcoa Alcoa Corporation (an acronym for Aluminum Company of America) is a Pittsburgh-based industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primary ...

(40%). As a self generation facility, the private plant was exempt from the nationalization of the Quebec electric industry under the Hydro-Québec umbrella in 1962-1963. Forced to reorganize under bankruptcy protection, AbitibiBowater was forced to sell its 60% share of the plant to a subsidiary of Hydro-Québec, HQ Manicouagan. The C$615 million transaction was completed in December 2009.

History

See also

Notes

Further reading