1900 THE MINNEDOSA RIVER PLANT was the first hydroelectric generating station in Manitoba. It went into operation on the Minnedosa River (now known as the Little Saskatchewan River) approximately 2.4 km to the north of its junction with the Assiniboine River. Operated by the Brandon Electric Light Company Ltd., the plant served the City of Brandon, located about 14 km to the east via an 11,000-volt (V) wood pole line. The plant operated for only eight months of the year. Its average operating head (waterfall) was 7.9 metres (m).

Construction of the Minnedosa River Plant was financed by Judge David Walker of Winnipeg, and Messrs. George Patterson and E. L. Christie of Brandon. The plant would be dismantled in 1924, following the purchase of the company three years earlier by the Canada Gas & Electric Corporation of Brandon.

WINNIPEG SELKIRK & LAKE WINNIPEG RAILWAY COMPANY was formed by a special Act of the Manitoba legislature to provide rail transportation northwards from Winnipeg to West Selkirk, and to the western shore of Lake Winnipeg. The municipalities of Kildonan, St. Paul, St. Andrews, and Gimli were included.

WINNIPEG ELECTRIC STREET RAILWAY COMPANY (WESR.Co.) purchased the North West Electric Company Ltd. on June 9.

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1902 THE SUBURBAN RAPID TRANSIT COMPANY was incorporated by a special Act of the Manitoba legislature to run streetcars from the western boundary of the City of Winnipeg (on both sides of the Assiniboine River) to Headingley. Service on the north side of the river extended to Headingley in 1903, but on the south side the line only reached as far as Charleswood.

WINNIPEG GENERAL POWER COMPANY was incorporated on March 1 by a special Act of the Manitoba legislature. The company was given the fullest powers to develop, transmit and distribute electricity in the province, and to develop a hydroelectric generating station at Pinawa.

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1904 THE WINNIPEG GENERAL POWER COMPANY officially amalgamated with WESR.Co. on July 26. The new company became known as the Winnipeg Electric Railway Company (WERCo.).

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1905 WERCo. PURCHASED THE SUBURBAN RAPID TRANSIT COMPANY on October 26. As a subsidiary of WERCo., the suburban line continued to operate under its original company name and was further empowered by a special Act of the Manitoba legislature to build and operate lines through the rural municipalities of St. Francois Xavier and Portage la Prairie. Starting in 1931, the transit rail line was to be progressively cut back until 1955, when the last streetcar to Deer Lodge was replaced by a bus service.

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1906 THE CITY OF WINNIPEG HYDRO ELECTRIC SYSTEM (City Hydro) was formed as a publicly owned utility to check the power monopoly held by the privately owned WERCo. Alderman John Wesley Cockburn, who held development rights to the Pointe du Bois Generating Station site on the Winnipeg River, surrendered these rights to the City for construction of a power plant there. The generating station was completed in 1911 and it is still in operation today.

WERCo., UPON TAKING OVER THE Winnipeg Selkirk & Lake Winnipeg Railway Company as a subsidiary, gained the monopoly on all transit service, and electric light, power and gas distribution in and around the City of Winnipeg. Originally a steam railroad, the line was electrified when it was acquired by WERCo. Service continued to Selkirk until September 1, 1937, at which time the electric streetcars were replaced by a gas bus service.

PINAWA WAS THE FIRST hydroelectric generating station on the Winnipeg River and the first hydroelectric generating station in Manitoba to operate year round. Located on the Pinawa Channel of the river, it was built by WERCo. for an initial investment of $3 million. Pinawa operated with a head of 14 m, and delivered its first power on June 9. Steady service began around June 11. It was officially opened on May 31 by Lieutenant-Governor Sir Daniel McMillan.

During the first year of Pinawa's operation, six units went into production with a total capacity of eight megawatts (one megawatt is one million watts). In 1907, units seven, eight and nine were added, bringing the total capacity to 14 MW. In 1912, the generating station was re-rated to a total of 22 MW.

Pinawa would be retired on September 21, 1951, to provide a more efficient use of the water flows at Seven Sisters Generating Station, which was completed in 1952.

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1911 POINTE DU BOIS GENERATING STATION on the Winnipeg River was completed by City Hydro. This was the first hydroelectric generating station built by the publicly owned utility and today is the oldest power plant still in operation on the river. The initial development cost of the project was $3,250,000.

Power from Pointe du Bois was first delivered to Winnipeg on October 16, and during the fiscal year of 1911–1912, units one to four and unit seven went on line. More units would be added in 1914, 1917, 1921, 1924 and 1926, bringing the number to 16. Their total capacity was 70 MW. The plant was later re-rated to 75.6 MW. It operates with a head of 14 m.

WINNIPEG RIVER RAILWAY COMPANY was incorporated on March 24 by a special Act of the Manitoba legislature. The company was empowered to operate “by steam or other power from a point at or near Lac du Bonnet to a point at or near Lake Winnipeg at the mouth of the Winnipeg River”. Great Falls became the chosen site. The company, which was financed by WERCo., became an affiliate of the Winnipeg River Power Company. Due to financing difficulties later on, the assets of both companies were taken over by the Manitoba Power Company, a subsidiary of WERCo. formed in 1920.

MILL STREET STEAM PLANT in Winnipeg was built by WERCo. as an auxiliary plant and terminal point for electricity produced at Pinawa Generating Station. All four units went into operation during the first year for a total capacity of approximately 8,948 kW. The steam plant went out of service in 1944.

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1913 WINNIPEG RIVER POWER COMPANY was formed under the Companies Act of the Dominion of Canada as an associate company of WERCo. to develop the generating station at Great Falls, formerly known as Grand du Bonnet Falls. The company completed its preliminary engineering research in 1914, and on September 1, 1915, it was granted a charter to develop the site.

The effects of World War I brought the project to a halt in July 1916. Work on the project resumed in May 1919, but stopped shortly afterwards due to material shortages and uncertain financing. The project was ultimately taken over in 1920 by the Manitoba Power Company, which would complete building Great Falls Generating Station in 1923.

THE MINNEDOSA HYDRO PLANT was constructed to serve the town of Minnedosa. Local citizens under the name of the Minnedosa Power Company built it on the Minnedosa River just north of the town. It originally had a 336-kW horizontal turbine connected to a 250-kW generator. Unfortunately, a sufficient water supply was never available for the plant to provide dependable year-round service. In 1921, the Manitoba Power Commission (MPC) assumed responsibility for the plant, enlarged it, and added two diesel engines to supplement the hydroelectric generators. In 1930, a 33-kV transmission line from MPC's transmission line network was constructed. The Minnedosa Hydro Plant was to be phased out by 1933, though the diesel engines continued on a standby basis until 1944.

DOMINION GOVERNMENT STUDIES OF NELSON AND CHURCHILL RIVERS were completed. The Government of Canada's Department of Mines concluded a comprehensive geological survey of the drainage basins of the two rivers to determine the power potential of Manitoba's northern river systems. The 1913 report formed the basis for further studies, undertaken half a century later, that ultimately led to the development of Manitoba's northern water power resources.

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1919 MPC CAME INTO EXISTENCE with the passage of an Electric Power Transmission Act of the Manitoba legislature. MPC's legislated mandate was “to generate, purchase, transmit, and distribute electrical energy” throughout rural Manitoba. Under the Act, any municipality could apply for service through the Minister of Public Works. Many municipalities were operating small and costly independent power systems at the time. MPC initially contracted to purchase the power from the City of Winnipeg, and later from the Winnipeg Electric Company (WECo.).

Pinawa Generating Station — a bold move into uncharted waters

The construction of Pinawa Generating Station on the Winnipeg River between 1902 and 1906 was a bold move, requiring both imagination and courage on the part of the Winnipeg Electric Railway Company (WERCo.). Pinawa was built at a time when nobody knew whether or not the Winnipeg River was suitable for hydroelectric development. The Dominion Water Board, which was responsible for the administration of water power resources in Manitoba, did not begin its investigation into the potential power capacity of the Winnipeg River until July 1911.

In addition to not really knowing the hydroelectric potential of the Winnipeg River, building Pinawa was an engineering challenge in 1902 — at least equivalent to the challenge of building generating stations on the Nelson River in the 1970s. The area where Pinawa was built was rough and unsettled, with no roads and no rail lines into the site.

The modern methods and the machinery available to engineers today did not exist, making the undertaking very laborious. To quote the account of a Mr. W. H. LeRoy, who worked as a rigger during the construction of Pinawa, “Rock drilling was done by tripod steam drills. Steam was supplied by boilers set on skids, and these were moved from one location to another by the riggers. Hoist and cableway engineers were trained as required. When derricks or heavy equipment had to be moved some distance, they were set on skids and pulled by teams assisted by block and tackle or by using the steam hoist when possible.”

Transportation of materials was one of the chief problems. During the winter, heavy equipment had to be carried over the river ice, and in summer a scow ferried material from Lac du Bonnet. The roads were mostly lumberjack trails. When these became impassable, detours or corduroy roads, had to be built. In all, from 50 to 75 teams of horses were kept in constant use.

LeRoy reported, “Moving heavy loads such as transformers, generators, and turbine parts was slow and costly. It was customary to build a rail line from the storage shed to the powerhouse. The piece to be moved was jacked up, rails slipped underneath, and the load hauled into place by block and tackle and horses.”

The construction of Pinawa required a total investment of over $3,000,000, one third of which was allotted for concrete dams alone. Many people had claimed that a plant production of 18,643 kW was far too large for the potential consumer demand in Winnipeg and that the cost was unwarranted. But Winnipeg's population quadrupled over the 10 years after the generating station officially opened in 1906. It was the greatest period of expansion in the City's history.

In fact, during the ensuing years, the capacity of the plant was developed and increased to a standard of 22,371 kW. Occasionally, peaks of 27,964 kW were reached.

Another important fact about Pinawa was that halfway through its construction, the City of Winnipeg realized the plant would provide the privately owned WERCo. with a virtual stranglehold on this valuable energy source. Consumers at the time paid 20 cents per kilowatt-hour (kW·h) for electricity. However, the city charter did not allow the City to generate power itself. Alderman John Wesley Cockburn took matters into his own hands in the belief the city charter could be changed, and secured the development rights to Pointe du Bois Falls in his own name. He transferred the rights to Winnipeg when the city charter was amended in 1906, at the time the City of Winnipeg Hydro Electric System (City Hydro) was born.

WERCo. reduced electricity rates from 20 cents to 10 cents per kilowatt-hour when Pinawa came on line. This made its service more attractive to customers and challenged the City owned utility. However, Cockburn then promised that Pointe du Bois would supply the citizens of Winnipeg with electricity at the rate of three cents per kilowatt-hour. But the rate turned out to be 7.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, and the citizens rose up against their own utility, demanding the three cents per kilowatt-hour rate they were promised. Finally, the rate was reduced to 3.3 cents per kilowatt-hour. Low electricity rates had come to Manitoba – and today they remain among the lowest in North America.

Pinawa was retired from service on October 25, 1951, after 45 years, four months, and 27 days of faithful service. By that time it was inefficient — and small compared to the new generating stations. In fact, one turbine generator's output of electricity at Seven Sisters Generating Station was equal to Pinawa's total output. With the construction of Seven Sisters, the fate of Pinawa was sealed. The design of Seven Sisters called for the full flow of the Winnipeg River, which meant the Pinawa Channel on which the older plant was located had to be dammed up.

Some of the workers and their families who had made their homes at Pinawa were transferred to other generating stations, while some of the veterans who had spent a lifetime with WERCo. retired from service.

The closing of Pinawa truly marked the end of the pioneer era for Manitoba. Today, the site of Pinawa Generating Station is a Provincial Heritage Park.

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