BC Hydro’s Mica dam project now has six generating units thanks to the completion of a $714 million upgrade at the facility.

BC Hydro’s Mica dam project now has six generating units thanks to the completion of a $714 million upgrade at the facility.

The Canadian utility confirmed last week that the project to add units five and six to the existing four units at the project had been completed. The two new generating units increase Mica’s capacity by about 1000MW, bringing its total capacity to more than 2805MW.

Mica Generating Station, located 145 kilometres north of Revelstoke, was originally designed to house six generating units though only four were installed when the facility was completed in 1977.

Mica is the cornerstone of BC Hydro’s Columbia River generation system and now accounts for about 22% of BC Hydro’s generation capacity.

The addition of the turbines is one part of an eight-year upgrade and expansion of Mica. Unit five went into service last winter and unit six went into service this winter. BC Hydro also recently upgraded the facility’s aging switchgear equipment and constructed a new series capacitor station on the transmission line from Mica near Seymour Arm.

To date, construction activities for the Mica expansion and upgrade projects have created about 1000 full time jobs for tradespeople in the region.