Ontario Power Generation

BIG EDDY STATION

PLANT GROUP: Small Hydro Division
DRAINAGE BASIN: Lake Huron
RIVER: Muskoka
NEAREST POPULATION CENTRE: Bala (13 KM (8 Miles) East)
IN SERVICE DATE: 1913
ACQUIRED BY: Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario 1941
Asset Transferred to Ontario Power Generation: April 1, 1999
NUMBER OF UNITS: 2
CONTROL: Northbury

HISTORICAL NOTE:
Electric power was the life blood of modern war industry. Behind the construction of every plane, ship, tank and every instrument of war produced in Canada were the great hydroelectric power developments whose turbines and generators provided, in ever increasing quantities, the essential ingredient common to all production of war equipment and supplies. To meet the greatly increasing demands for power, the Commission undertook a large construction program. From September 1939 to the end of April 1943, 1,215 individual projects as varied in size as the purpose they served were undertaken. The Big Eddy development was one of the projects undertaken as "Hydro built for victory".