Churchill Falls
Underground Hydro / Dikes dam · Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada
Churchill Falls is an underground hydro / dikes dam on the Churchill in Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada, standing 61 m (200 ft) high and completed in 1971. It carries an installed hydroelectric capacity of 5,428 MW. The structure impounds Smallwood Reservoir, about 5,630 km² on the map.
The Churchill Falls Generating Station is a hydroelectric underground power station in Labrador, Canada. At 5,428 MW, it is the sixteenth largest in the world, and the second-largest in Canada, after the Robert-Bourassa generating station in northwestern Quebec.
Rather than a single large dam, the plant's reservoir is contained by 88 dikes, totalling 64 km in length. The Smallwood Reservoir has a capacity of 33 cubic kilometres in a catchment area of about 72,000 square kilometres, an area larger than the Republic of Ireland. It drops over 305 metres to the site of the plant's 11 turbines.
The plant's power house was hewn from solid granite 300 metres underground. It is about 300 metres long and as high as a 15-story building.
The station cost almost CA$1 billion (equivalent to $8.1 billion in 2025) to build in 1970. Commissioned from 1971 to 1974, it is owned and operated by the Churchill Falls Labrador Corporation Limited, a joint venture between Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro (65.8%) and Hydro-Québec (34.2%). Workers at the station live in the purpose-built company town of Churchill Falls.
Adapted from Wikipedia: Churchill Falls Generating Station (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Dam type
- Underground Hydro / Dikes
- Structural height
- 61 m (200 ft)
- Installed capacity
- 5,428 MW
- Impounded river
- Churchill
- Reservoir
- Smallwood Reservoir
- Location
- Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada
- Year completed
- 1971
- Height rank
- #70 of 115 indexed
- Output rank
- #14 of 102 indexed
- Coordinates
- 53.5333°, -64.3167°
Notable: Iconic Canadian mega-project diverting Churchill Falls into the massive Smallwood Reservoir.
Among the 115 dams indexed in YearMaps, Churchill Falls ranks #70 by structural height, behind Jinping-I Dam (305 m). By installed generating capacity it ranks #14, behind Three Gorges Dam (22,500 MW).
Impounded reservoir: Smallwood Reservoir (5,630 km², impounded 1971).
Nearest cities: Sept-Îles (384 km), Rimouski (638 km), Corner Brook (676 km).
More about Churchill Falls
History
In 1915, Wilfred Thibaudeau surveyed the Labrador Plateau. He designed a channel scheme to divert water before it arrived at the falls. The scheme would use the natural capacity of the drainage basin, which covers over 23,300 mi2 (60,000 km2), eliminating the need for the construction of dams. The advantage of the site was the river's drop of more than 300 metres in less than 32 km, and steady supply of water. These findings were confirmed in a 1947 survey, but development did not proceed due to the remoteness of the site and the distance from markets for the power.
In 1954, the region was opened up by the completion of the Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway which runs north from Sept-Îles, Quebec 575 km north through Labrador to Schefferville, Quebec.
Post-construction legal challenges
In Newfoundland and Labrador, the contract between Churchill Falls (Labrador) Corporation (CFLCo) and Hydro-Québec has created a great deal of resentment. Events unforeseen at the time of the 1969 negotiation have greatly increased Hydro-Quebec's profit margin on the fixed price of energy from the station.
In 2019, Quebec's highest court, the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled that Hydro-Quebec's right to sell Churchill Falls energy had a monthly cap, simplifying the management of water resources for the Lower Churchill Project's Muskrat Falls station.
The Churchill Falls hydroelectric plant development was undertaken in the absence of any agreement with the Innu people, but has resulted in significant damage to their traditional territory.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Churchill Falls Generating Station (CC BY-SA 4.0).