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Celebrating 125 years of history at Canada’s Silversmith Generating Station

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Celebrating 125 years of history at Canada’s Silversmith Generating Station

The 0.44 MW Silversmith Generating Station in Sandon, British Columbia, Canada, was originally built in 1896 and 1897 to provide energy for valuable silver mining operations. In its 125-year history, the run-of-river hydropower plant has been producing high-quality electricity reliably and consistently, with its vintage equipment. The Silversmith facility was inducted into the Hydro Hall of Fame in 2021.

Hydro Hall of Fame

Read on to learn about the hydro plant, its history, and its long life of service.

History of the plant

Sandon, British Columbia, was once the epicenter of a world-class silver mining boom. The historic Silversmith Generating Station, first known as the Slocan Star Plant, was built by Slocan Star Mining and Milling Company. The company owned what once was Canada’s highest dividend-paying mine. The hydroelectric plant provided energy for the entire operation and was located about 2 miles from the mine site. The Silversmith operation has been producing electricity since April 5, 1897, its official date of commissioning.

The original infrastructure consisted of water intakes using weirs on four mountain creeks, about 3 miles of wooden flumes, a penstock, two Pelton waterwheels and direct current (DC) generators. A massive air compressor in the plant, built by Canadian Rand Company (later known as Ingersoll-Rand), was also water-powered. Steel air lines piped the compressed air up the mountain and then distributed it through several miles of underground mine workings. The electrical production from the Silversmith facility mainly served the rock crushing plant and concentrating mill, plus the camp, mine buildings and sundry uses.

Personnel building the flume for the Silversmith plant in 1897.

Personnel building the flume for the Silversmith plant in 1897.

Even in its earliest years, the limitations of DC power were evident. For example, the distance between the generating plant and the mine made it impractical to install a DC-powered air compressor at the mine. Instead, a water-powered air compressor was installed in Sandon and compressed air was delivered via a 6-in-diameter steel pipeline over a distance of about 2 miles. However, the economic conditions of the early 1900s made it difficult to raise the capital to upgrade to alternating current (AC) generation and distribution.

World War I changed the fortunes of the mine owner and, with access to major capital, the Slocan Star company was reorganized and renamed Silversmith Mines Limited. Immediately, the company constructed a new highly advanced concentrating mill and simultaneously undertook the conversion from DC to AC generation and distribution. Arrangements were made to purchase a Westinghouse alternator and switchgear from Vernon, British Columbia’s, first powerhouse. This machinery had been driven by a reciprocating steam engine in Vernon, but its installation at Silversmith used the abundant water power available at Sandon. The already well-used Westinghouse equipment transformed the hydro plant into a state-of-the-art operation, with efficiencies and longevity that have seldom been matched.

This Westinghouse control panel is still in service today.

The capacity of the station remains at 0.44 MW. The total head is 610 vertical feet with a water flow of 13 cubic feet per second. Four weirs on four separate creeks divert water into the penstocks. There is no water storage at the intakes. The four branch lines and main penstock are 17,700 ft in length with a maximum diameter of 22 in. The highest-pressure section was originally constructed using riveted iron pipe. Woodstave pipe made of British Columbia Douglas fir was used for the rest of the steep uphill section. The original 1897 design used plank flumes built on a 0.5% grade for the long relatively flat sections at the top of the system.

One of the four intakes for the hydro plant is located on Cody Creek.

During the major upgrade of 1916, all of the open-topped flume sections were converted to woodstave pipe penstock, resulting in higher horsepower for the powerhouse.

The design and function of the hydro plant is essentially unchanged since its last major upgrade in 1916. In 1996, the current owners bought all the Silversmith assets and formed the operating company that exists today. During the 1990s and early 2000s, Silversmith Power and Light (SP&L) replaced the aging woodstave pipe with all-welded high-density polyethylene penstocks to provide another 100-plus years of trouble-free operations. In addition, three of the four original weirs, which were built of logs and timbers, have been modernized with steel and concrete. The remaining one will be upgraded within the next decade.

The Rand 600 CFM air compressor remains in its original form and is in fully functional condition, although it is no longer used on account of the dormant state of mining.

Today, the Silversmith Generating Station supplies electricity to the local community and is British Columbia’s smallest regulated generation/distribution utility. Excess generation is fed into the British Columbia grid owned by BC Hydro, the largest provincial electrical utility. The Silversmith plant provides valuable power quality benefits to BC Hydro (var control/voltage support), as well as capacity. The superb quality of the synchronous Westinghouse equipment makes this possible. SP&L was the first hydroelectric producer in western Canada to be awarded federal green certification in 1999. In the same year, SP&L also won the Attractions Canada award for providing tours of the historic operation to the general public.  

Pictured here are the Pelton wheel turbine and Westinghouse alternating current generator.

At 125 years of continuous operation, the Silversmith plant is well-positioned to achieve records for the world’s longest continuously operating machinery. All of the major components date back to the formative years of hydroelectricity, and they are maintained with loving care and detail. The original controls and switchgear are still in service, and they work in conjunction with a state-of-the-art Schweitzer 351 control relay and alarm systems, which communicate into a Starlink satellite system. Maintenance and record-keeping are still performed in virtually the same way they were done more than a century ago.

While providing high-quality electricity to our modern world, the Silversmith Generating Station is also a superb model of living, working heritage. Tours of the facility are provided free of charge to the general public from May to October.

SP&L is proud to be a 2021 inductee into the Hydro Hall of Fame!  Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the presentation of the award was made virtually in 2022.

Hal Wright is manager of Silversmith Power and Light Corporation.