Occasionally tours are offered of the underground workings of the power plant.
Wreck Cove is the largest and one of Nova Scotia Power’s more unique generating stations – the station’s powerhouse is located 275 meters underground, down a 620 meter access tunnel that’s carved out of the side of a mountain and looks like the lair of a James Bond villain. From Surge Lake on top of the mountain the water rushes down through a 335-metre-long penstock feeding into a pair of six-metre-wide turbines, powering two separate 138,000 horsepower generators that can produce up to 226,000 kilowatts of electricity. From there there’s another three-kilometre tunnel that carries spent water through the mountain from the plant to the ocean.
More than 21/2 million cubic metres of rock were blasted and removed in the process of making the hydroelectric plant.
Phone: +19029292637
Address: 42338 Cabot Trail, Ingonish Beach, NS B0C 1H0
