Project Background

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More capacity will help meet peak-period demand in B.C.

To ensure the province of B.C. continues to have the electricity it needs and in support of the Clean Energy Act, BC Hydro is working to install two additional approximately 500 MW generating units into existing turbine bays at Mica Generating Station.

This capacity addition to our generating system is cost-effective, has a low environmental impact, and will improve system reliability and system operations.

The Mica Unit 5 project will also require construction of a new series capacitor station near the midpoint of the existing Mica to Nicola 500 kV transmission line needed to reliably deliver the additional electrical generation at Mica.

• Map showing preferred location of capacitor station [PDF, 51 KB]

The target in-service dates for Mica Unit 5 is October 2014 and the target in-service date for Mica Unit 6 is October 2015.

About Mica Generating Station

Mica Generating Station,  located on the Columbia River about 135 km north of the City of Revelstoke, began operating in 1977.

Originally designed as a six-unit facility, the installation of Units 5 and 6 were deferred until additional capacity was needed.

The generating station currently has four generating units with a combined maximum capacity of 1,805 megawatts (MW) and a historic annual average power production of 7,202 gigawatt hours (GWh). Mica generation accounts for roughly 15% of BC Hydro's current installed capacity.

Project need

B.C.'s electricity demand continues to grow

BC Hydro's load forecast indicates that demand for electricity will grow by up to 30% over the next 20 years.

Additional units at Mica preferred to help BC Hydro meet the growing demand for electricity

BC Hydro convened a consultative committee, the Revelstoke-Mica Sequence Identification Committee, in the summer of 2007 to recommend a preferred development sequence for the remaining units at Revelstoke and Mica Generating Stations.

In their final report [PDF, 4.4 MB], the committee recommended that BC Hydro install additional units at Mica before installing the sixth unit at Revelstoke.

Additional generating units at the Mica Generating Station will provide more dependable capacity, important to meet demands at peak periods, such as cold winter nights when lights, stoves, baseboard heaters, televisions and computers are all in use.

BC Hydro will help the province become energy self-sufficient by 2016 through conservation, capacity additions and new sources of clean energy.