Trent University is undertaking a $20-million renovation and rebuild of the hydroelectric generating facility that the university owns and operates on the Otonabee River.

Trent’s board of governors approved the project in June last year, said Don O’Leary, Trent vice-president of administration.

O’Leary refused to release the information on how much revenue the university expects to generate through the rebuilt hydroelectric generating station, the Stan Adamson Powerhouse.

Currently, the university generates electricity to cover about 40% of its power needs for the Symons Campus, O’Leary said.

“It’s a great business opportunity for us. It ensures quite a nice reduction in operating costs … for years and years to come.”
Don O’Leary, Trent University’s vice-president of administration

The university saves $600,000 to $800,000 a year by not having to buy the electricity from the provincial power grid for the 40% of its energy needs that are satisfied by the Stan Adamson Powerhouse, he said.

With the updated powerhouse, Trent will sell all the electricity that’s generated to the provincial power grid through the Feed-in Tariff program for renewable energy production, then purchase back the electricity that it needs at the regular rates, O’Leary said.

Trent plans to start construction on the project next year.

It awarded a contract for the manufacturing of the new turbines for the facility last fall; a tender closed about a month ago for the automation system for the gates that control the flow of water to the turbines; and the contract for the rebuilding of the powerhouse and installation of the turbines will close in August, O’Leary said.

“The real work will begin on this project probably in the spring,” he said.

The Stan Adamson Powerhouse was built on the east bank of the river in 1921, replacing a powerhouse that had been on the west bank since the late 1890s.

It’s just north of the Nassau Mills Rd. bridge.

The powerhouse was part of the large area of land that was donated to the university by General Electric Canada to form the 1,460-acre campus.

Production has diminished from the three turbines that are about 100 years old, O’Leary said.

“It’s the greatest, most valuable donation that we’ve ever received,” he said. “This is the right way to produce electricity. It has been for hundreds of years.

“I don’t know of any other university that’s able to do this. Lots of them produce electricity, but certainly not through hydro means.”