Site C on track for completion in 2025

The new Site C substation is on the left, the spillways, powerhouse and operations building at centre, with the earthfill dam under construction along the Peace River to the right.

Located in northeast British Columbia, BC Hydro’s Site C Clean Energy Project will be the third dam and hydroelectric generating station on the Peace River.

Construction on Site C began in July 2015 and the project is on schedule to have all six generating units fully inservice in fall 2025.

Once the project is up and running, Site C will provide British Columbians with 1,100 megawatts of firm capacity and produce about 5,100 gigawatt hours of clean electricity each year. This is the equivalent amount of energy needed to reliably power about 450,000 homes or 1.7 million electric vehicles per year in British Columbia. This $16-billion project near Fort St. John includes an earthfill dam that is 1,050-metres long, 60 metres high and nearly 500 metres wide, a generating station with six 183-megawatt generating units, and an 800-metre roller-compacted-concrete buttress to enhance seismic protection.

Outside of the dam site area, the project includes an 83-kilometre-long reservoir, a new substation, two new 500-kilovolt, 75-kilometre-long transmission lines connecting Site C to the BC Hydro grid, and the realignment of about 30 kilometres of local highway due to the creation of the future reservoir.

A look inside the Site C powerhouse. Turbines will be installed at the centre of each spiral station.

There are six penstocks at the Site C dam, which will channel water from the reservoir into the powerhouse. Each penstock is 10 metres in diameter and 80 metres in length.

Aerial view shows Site C's spillways, penstocks, powerhouse and operations building for BC Hydro's third dam along the Peace River.

Construction on Site C is more than two-thirds complete. The powerhouse building structure is finished, the substation and transmission lines are already in service and work on the earthfill dam is about 70 per cent complete. In the coming year, work will continue on the earthfill dam to reach the necessary elevation gains in preparation for reservoir filling.

The project hit peak construction in summer 2022 with more than 5,000 workers. Nearly 70 per cent of workers are from British Columbia and approximately 1,000 workers are from the local Peace Region in the province. At any given time, there are 300 - 400 Indigenous people working on the project.

The Site C project is located within the traditional territories of the Treaty 8 First Nations. To date, benefit agreements have been reached with most Treaty 8 First Nations impacted by the project. Indigenous-designated businesses have also been awarded more than $630 million in Site C procurement opportunities.

British Columbia’s electricity needs are expected to grow by almost 40 per cent over the next 20 years —driven by a projected increase of more than one million people, economic expansion, and a critical need to decarbonize the economy through electrification.

The Site C project plays a key role in British Columbia’s plan to electrify its economy by encouraging customers to choose clean electricity powered by water over fossil fuels. p