 | Between 1899 and the 1920's, hydro-electric power stations were built along the Trent-Severn Waterway System. These plants formed an important part of the early power grid in Ontario and signalled a 20th century resource use of the waterway.
By the beginning of the 20th century, hydro-electric power was considered to be the energy supplier of the future for the province of Ontario. Up until that time, Ontario had been heavily dependent on coal, the power source of the steam age. Hydro-electricity was viewed as the "white coal" of falling water, an independent, cheaper, more versatile source of energy for Ontarians. But, more importantly, cheap abundant hydro-electricity was thought to be the
vehicle needed for industrial expansion. With Ontario's own energy supply, new industries would be developed and attracted into the province.
Communities along the waterway viewed the system as a great natural resource and a potential source of power. People sought to encourage investment in electrical generating and transmission plants. In general, the harnessing of the system for hydro-electricity coincided with construction of the canal during the last construction phase.
In Ontario, hydro-electricity eventually came under public ownership. In fact, one power plant built along the Trent-Severn Waterway, at Big Chute, played an important role in the development of public control of hydro-electricity. In 1909, the Simcoe Railway and Power Company decided to construct a plant at Big Chute, at the Severn end of the Waterway. In September 1909, the company received from the Ontario government a water control lease for the Big Chute area to produce hydro-electric power for the towns of Midland and Penetanguishene. Although construction of the power facilities at Big Chute were hampered by transportation difficulties, the plant was finally operating in July, 1911, with a capacity of 3300 hp.
The construction of the Big Chute plant was closely followed by formation of the Hydro Electric Power Commission (HEPC) of Ontario, the public body responsible for the regulation of electricity supply in the province. After a thorough inspection of the site, the Commission became convinced of the value of the facility. In 1911, they signed a contract with the Simcoe Railway and Power Company to supply electricity to Midland and Penetanguishene. In July of 1914, the Hydro Commission, later to become Ontario Hydro, took the first step in public control of hydro-electricity by purchasing the Big Chute plant, making it the first power producing facility owned by the agency.
Far greater hydro-electric developmemt occurred on the Kawartha and Trent watercourses. Small lighting plants were operating in the 1880's. By the 1890's, some plants were producing power in the few hundred horsepower range. As early as 1900, the Canadian General Electric works had made Peterborough one of Canada's major electrical manufacturing centers.
The advent of high voltage transmission systems (by about 1900) spurred further development. The federal government included extensive design allowances for hydro-electric facilities in canal plans for the Lakefield-Otonabee section (1896) and the Ontario-Rice Lake section (1908).
Plants of two to three hundred horsepower were built at Fenelon Falls, Young's Point and Lock 24 (the latter two supplying the Lakefield Portland Cement Company.). In the 1920's, larger plants of about 2000 horsepower were built at Lakefield and Nassau.
By far the largest hydro-electric development was that of the Electric Power Company on the Trent River. Between 1908 and 1916 this firm built and operated generating plants at Sidney, Frankford, Stephensons Falls, Healey Falls and Peterborough. This 30,000 horsepower system was linked by a 44,000 volt distribution network which supplied a 5000 square mile area bounded by Whitby and Belleville on Lake Ontario, and Lindsay and Bancroft in the north. This private power system of some twenty subsidiary companies became the Central Ontario Region of the Hydro Electric Power Commission of Ontario after it was purchased by the province in 1916.
Today, the output of the hydro-electric power plants along the Waterway is still significant for the power production of Ontario, and in one particular place it plays a major role - Trent University obtains half its power needs from its own power plant on the Otonabee River section of the Waterway.
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