On Thursday, March 31, Hydro One will be conducting a full day outage that will result in temporary disconnection of the Norman Generating Station and Kenora Generating Station from the grid. During the outage, neither facility will be able to pass flow through turbines and this will result in a temporary drop in the level of the Winnipeg River near Kenora. To limit the effect of the outage on river levels, the LWCB has directed the dam operators to add flow through the log sluices at the Norman Dam (currently all log sluices are fully closed).
River levels will fluctuate before, during and after the outage as dam operations are adjusted and this may cause the ice on the river to shift. The LWCB recommends taking precautions when on or near the Winnipeg River between March 30 and April 1.
On March 31, river levels are expected to decrease as follows.
Below the Norman Dam: 55 cm (22 in)
Above Kimberly Rapids: 39 cm (15 in)
Winnipeg River Marina: 26 cm (10 in)
Near Locke Bay and Above Myrtle Rapids: 26 cm (10 in)
Above the Dalles and Throat Rapids: 22 cm (9 in)
Minaki: no change
Following the outage, flow will return to the authorized rate of 425 m³/s and the river will rise back to the pre-outage level range.