The Saint Marys Falls Hydropower Plant is an 18-MW

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

generating plant located in

Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan Sault Ste. Marie ( ') is the only city in, and county seat of, Chippewa County, Michigan, Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. With a population of 13,337 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the second-most populated ...

(the "Soo"). It extracts water from the St. Marys River under the supervision of the Army Corps of Engineers, and the power is taken up and distributed by the

Cloverland Electric Cooperative Cloverland Electric Cooperative is an electric cooperative in Michigan, United States. It serves five counties on the eastern end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula ( Chippewa, Mackinac, Schoolcraft, Delta and Luce), as well as the cities of Sault Ste ...

, a rural utility that serves the Soo area.

History

As of 2021, the Soo hydropower plant is one of the oldest large generating stations still operating in the United States. The power canal and generator complex were begun in September 1898 and completed in June 1902, using engineering work from the first iteration of large-scale electrical generation in the late 1800s. It was from this work that the plant and utility that grew up around it acquired their historic name of Edison Sault, although

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...

did not himself build the plant. The Soo hydropower plant was built to contain 74 generators under a single roof. This was done under the constraints of the

Classical style Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the works of the Roman architect V ...

, by building an industrial structure of in length parallel to the St. Marys River and facing the structure with

masonry Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...

. The

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

facing of the power station was chiseled out of blocks pulled from the

Edison Sault Power Canal The Edison Sault Power Canal supplies the Saint Marys Falls Hydropower Plant, a Cloverland Electric Cooperative hydroelectric plant, in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Excavation of the power canal began in September 1898 and was completed in June ...

, the feeder canal that chutes water to the plant. President

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...

visited the plant in 1911. The power canal and hydroelectric plant were together named a

Historic Civil Engineering Landmark __NOTOC__ The following is a list of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks as designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers since it began the program in 1964. The designation is granted to projects, structures, and sites in the United State ...

in 1983. Although the hydroelectric plant could generate as much as 25-30

megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units, International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), ...

s if operating at full capacity, grid planners rate it at 18 MW.

References

External links

*{{HAER , survey=MI-1 , id=mi0085 , title=Michigan Lake Superior Power Company, Portage Street, Sault Ste. Marie, Chippewa County, MI , photos=141 , color=2 , dwgs=8 , data=237 , cap=20 Dams in Michigan 1902 establishments in Michigan Buildings and structures in Chippewa County, Michigan Energy infrastructure completed in 1902 Historic American Engineering Record in Michigan Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmarks Hydroelectric power plants in Michigan St. Marys River (Michigan–Ontario)