Early Alberta Hydro History: to 1913

The early development of hydroelectric power in Alberta was a direct product of the province’s great immigration and settlement boom of the early twentieth century. As in the rest of North America, it was the explosive population growth in urban centres that drove the demand for electricity in Alberta. Between 1901 and 1911, Calgary’s population increased nearly tenfold, from 4,398 to 43,706. It was this tremendous population growth, coupled with the city’s close proximity to the powerful water resources of the Rocky Mountains, that made Calgary the epicentre of Alberta’s early hydroelectric development.

Calgary’s first hydro plant was nothing like the enormous mega projects that would characterize hydro later in the twentieth century. It was a small shack-like building constructed by the Calgary Water Power Company in 1893. This two-storey structure was built along a weir spanning the south bank of the Bow River and Prince’s Island, just north of downtown Calgary. This barrier altered the flow of the river and pooled water so

that it could be channelled through the plant. It was originally built to supplement the company’s wood-fueled steam plant, but was later connected to a generator that provided electricity to much of Calgary. In 1894, the Calgary Water Power Company was granted a ten-year monopoly on providing Calgary with electricity.

By 1905, the existing facilities and infrastructure could not meet Calgary’s demand for electricity. Hydroelectric power was still the cheapest option available, and the region needed all it could get. New corporations entered the race to develop southern Alberta’s hydro potential. In 1911, Calgary Power (which would evolve into TransAlta Utilities over the next century) completed the province’s first major hydroelectric plant in order to provide Calgary with badly needed electricity. This plant was constructed at Horseshoe Falls on the Bow River, about fifty miles upstream from Calgary.

Even before the Horseshoe Falls plant was finished, it was clear that this one project would not be sufficient to provide booming Calgary with its electricity needs. In 1910, Calgary Power won the bid to build a second hydroelectric facility on the Bow River, this one located at Kananaskis Falls. Development of this project was complicated for several years by a dispute between Calgary Power and the Nakoda people, upon whose reserve land the facility was to be constructed. The Nakoda people wanted a one-time payment of $10,000 and an annual rent of $1,500 from Calgary Power for the right to build and operate the facility—terms that the company had accepted to clear the way for the Horseshoe Falls project, but which it now refused to pay a second time. The company received permission from the federal government to proceed with construction prior to

reaching a negotiated settlement, a move that outraged the Nakoda and dramatically raised tension between the two sides. The project was completed in 1913, one year before the Nakoda and Calgary Power reached a final financial agreement.

By the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, hydroelectricity was well on its way to becoming an essential source of power for Albertans. The economic boom and population growth had created enormous demand for electricity, and investors recognized the profits to be made by developing the region’s hydro potential. Large-scale projects like Horseshoe Falls and Kananaskis Falls were precursors of what was to come, as developers would look to expand the province’s hydroelectric capacity in the 1920s and beyond.