Effect of Ice Cover on Hydropower Production

Power losses at the Moses-Saunders Power Dam due to the existence of an ice cover in the St. Lawrence River between the Iroquois Dam and the Power Dam are analyzed for the twenty-five winters between 1958 and 1983. The analysis shows that the average power loss per winter was 49,180 MW-hrs, which is equivalent to 82,131 barrels of oil or 2.46 million dollars. Major factors which affectt the magnitude of the power loss are the initial roughness of the river ice cover and the size of the remaining open water area.