Hydro Power Systems

The Pemberton area is home to two significant BC Hydro power system projects.

Rutherford Creek Power Project

Just 10 kilometres southwest of Pemberton on the west side of Highway 99, lies the 50-megawatt Rutherford Creek Power Project, which began producing electricity in May 2004.

The project took less than two years to build and was developed under a negotiated Participation Agreement. The Mount Currie First Nation, which accounted for roughly 15% of the workforce, will share in benefits related to operations and its profits.

Rutherford Creek is comprised of a diversion weir on the creek, which draws the water through the penstock, dropping the water 370 metres to the powerhouse below, to two 25-megawatt turbine generators.

Miller Creek Hydro Project

High in the Coast Mountains lays the source of Miller Creek’s abundant water supply, the Ipsoot Glacier. Another run-of-river project nestled in the Sea to Sky Corridor, the Miller Creek hydro project, on a tributary of the Lillooet River, lies four kilometres north of Pemberton and produces 29 megawatts (MW) of power.

The facility includes water intakes on North and South Miller Creek at elevations of 1,100 metres and 1,200 metres. The water then travels through a 4.2-kilometre steel pressure pipeline linking to a 33- megawatt power station in the lower reach of the creek. Behind the three-metre high concrete dam and steel water-release gate is a two-hectare pond reservoir.

Future planned development on several rivers is in the environmental stages.