Ontario Power Generation

RANNEY FALLS GENERATING STATION

PLANT GROUP: Small Hydro Division
DRAINAGE BASIN: Lake Ontario
RIVER: Trent
NEAREST POPULATION CENTRE: Campbellford (1.6 KM (1 Mile) North)
IN SERVICE DATE:
UNIT 1 - August 22, 1922
UNIT 2 - September 2, 1922
UNIT 3 - 1926
ACQUIRED BY HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER COMMISSION OF ONTARIO: 1937 (Unit 3)
FROM: Quinte And Trent Valley Power Company
Asset Transferred to Ontario Power Generation: April 1, 1999
NUMBER OF UNITS: 3
CONTROL: Northbury

HISTORICAL NOTE:
The Trent Canal began in a small way in 1833 with the construction of a few locks on the Trent and Otonabee Rivers and on the Kawartha Lakes in order to connect the small pioneer settlements along their banks. Supplemented by an extensive system of log slides, they contributed for many years to the flourishing lumber trade of the district which eventually died out. From 1895 to 1918, additional sections of the canal were built to provide a through route with 2.4 m (8 ft) draught. The canal is of considerable importance as a source of water power as well as a holiday and tourist playground.

Like many other power sites on the Trent Canal, the Ranney's Falls site was formerly leased by the Federal Government to the Seymour Power Company. When the Provincial Government purchased the Seymour Power Company on March 9, 1916, the rights to the site and others were acquired.

In addition to the plants operated by the Commission, there were a number of privately-owned plants on the Trent diversion of the Canal, including those of the Quaker Oat Co. and the Canadian General Electric Co. at Peterborough as well as the Lakefield Portland Cement Co. at Lakefield.

The Ranney Falls plant, like all other plants on the Trent diversion of the canal, fed the Commission's "Central Ontario System". The system supplied power to about 25 municipalities in central Ontario, including Peterborough, Kingston, Belleville, Oshawa, Lindsay, Trenton, Cobourg, Port Hope, Bowmanville, Picton, Deseronto, Napanee and Whitby. The total population, at the time, served by this system was approximately 120,000.

MISCELLANEOUS:
The Ranney Falls station was the seventh of the chain of generating stations supplying power to the Central Ontario System from the Trent River.