Raging River

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The Raging River small hydro project, which was connected to the grid in May 2002, is located approximately 26 km east of Port Alice. The project makes use of a hydro site originally commissioned in the early 1900s to supply energy to a mine. In 1960, Cominco rebuilt the facility, which then supplied energy to their Benson Lake mine until the mid-1970s. Now refurbished by Raging River Power and Mining Inc., the 2 MW capacity project is expected to generate approximately 13 GWh of electricity per year. A unique feature of this project is that a dam pre-existed at the site. However, the project is considered to be green because its operations will have minimal incremental environmental impact. This is because the dam has been in place for more than 100 years, so the surrounding environment has long since adapted to its presence. The new facility will maintain both the upstream ecosystem that has evolved, and required levels of downstream flow.