Manitoba Heritage Council Commemorative Plaques

Pinawa Power Site

The first hydroelectric generating station in Manitoba began delivering power from this site in June of 1906. Developed in response to the demand for residential and commercial electric power, Pinawa was crucial to the rapid growth of Winnipeg before the Great War. The financial success of the plant, owned and operated by the Winnipeg Electric Railway Company, provoked a political controversy over private monopoly of power utilities. In subsequent years there was a rapid expansion of power generation in Manitoba by both private and public enterprise.

When the downstream Seven Sisters hydro station was nearing capacity in 1951, the Pinawa Power Site was closed to allow the full flow of the Winnipeg River to serve the larger facility.