Wednesday, April 16, 2025
Ontario Power Generation (OPG) announced that the historic 93-year-old turntable at the Chats Falls Generating Station (GS) is revolving smoothly once again thanks to its successful refurbishment.
The large, circular platform is used to help move key equipment, including the station’s main output transformer. During maintenance activities, the turntable serves as a key access point for equipment to be worked on in the nearby powerhouse or shipped elsewhere.
After reliably serving the eastern Ontario hydro station for decades, the turntable was due for an upgrade.
Work to refurbish this important piece of equipment began last year as the old turntable was lifted out and successfully wrapped up this spring.
With the refurbished turntable now in service, we have restored an important piece of equipment that will ensure the safe, reliable operation and support ongoing maintenance of Chats Falls GS.
“This project was a complete success. In the end, our team helped secure significant cost savings to deliver operational excellence for OPG and for Ontario,” said Chris Hamel, senior manager of maintenance/production for OPG’s Lower Ottawa stations. “With the refurbished turntable now in service, we have restored an important piece of equipment that will ensure the safe, reliable operation and support ongoing maintenance of Chats Falls GS.”
The project, completed entirely by OPG employees, included concrete repairs to the turntable’s support structure, replacement of the main centre bearing, and replacement of the crane rails used to guide the mechanism.
In addition, epoxy paint was applied to the steel turntable and to its refurbished concrete base to reduce damage from road salt in the future.
Jointly owned by OPG and Hydro-Québec, the eight-unit, 192-megawatt Chats Falls GS is located 60 km west of Ottawa near the Ontario-Québec border and sends power to both provinces.
As a shared station, revenues and costs are shared by both power companies, with each owning four of the plant’s units, while OPG operates the entire facility.
It’s a unique partnership that began back in 1928, when OPG’s predecessor, the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, struck a deal with the Chats Falls Power Company, later absorbed by Hydro-Québec, on the development and operation of a powerhouse on the Ottawa River.
Featured image: Chats Falls Generating Station. (Ontario Power Generation)
