Niagara Power Project, New York

The New York Power Authority’s Niagara Power Project captures the energy of Niagara Falls, and is among the largest hydroelectric projects in the nation, and when it opened in 1961, it was said to be the largest in the western world. The operation is explained and overlooked in a most dramatic way at the Power Vista (one of the most dramatic hydroelectric plant visitor centers in the nation). The Power Project consists of several components, from upstream to down: the International Control Dam and Intakes, above Niagara Falls; the five mile-long pipeline carrying that water under the city of Niagara Falls; to the Lewiston Forebay, dam, and power station; which is connected via the Robert Moses Forebay to the Robert Moses Dam and Power Station. The Lewiston Forebay is a massive excavation that holds water delivered via pipeline from above Niagara Falls, as well as water that is pumped up from the river below. (This makes the Lewiston Dam and Power Plant, holding back the water in the Lewiston Forebay, a pumped storage-type facility.) The Robert Moses Dam, facing the Niagara River, holds back water from the Moses Forebay, and is capable of using water from the Lewiston Forebay and the intake pipes from the falls. In either case, water is released through turbines in the dam generating electricity. The Moses Dam can generate more than 2,000 megawatts of electricity. The dam faces its double, across the gorge, in Canada, where a similar system generates another 2,000 megawatts.