Despite the late arrival of summer in Whistler, causing water flows in Fitzsimmons Creek to peak in July instead of the typical June, performance of the new hydroelectric power plant has been “pretty close” to expectations, according to the project manager.

During a tour of the run-of-river project on Thursday (Aug. 26), Natalie Closs of Innergex said she didn’t have the data handy but the power generation has so far “probably” met design expectations.

Though the $33 million project has been in operation since late January, project backers Ledcor and Innergex held a grand opening and ribbon cutting event last week. Attending dignitaries including B.C. Environment Minister Barry Penner attended. Closs said the commissioning process was still underway until recently — commissioning can take almost a year because the plant needs to be tested at various water flow levels, she said.

Lowest flows are typically seen in February, when the surface of the creek is frozen but water is still running underneath, Closs said. High flows are typically seen in June, but this year the high point was reached in July, she added.

The plant is designed to run year round, but if water flows get too low it would likely be shut down for maintenance.

Power from the 7.9-megawatt project is being sold to B.C. Hydro, with enough power produced annually to energize about 3,000 homes. Though power from the Fitzsimmons plant is going to the B.C. Hydro grid, it’s also generating enough electricity to offset the energy used to power Whistler Blackcomb’s operations.

The project’s powerhouse is located near the Whistler Sliding Centre on Blackcomb Mountain, and a Ziptrek Ecotours line travels directly overhead. The water intake is located about three kilometres upstream from the powerhouse and is visible from the Peak 2 Peak Gondola.

Aside from the intake, a small regulation chamber building, the powerhouse and some areas of land that have been dug up and subsequently re-seeded, there’s relatively little to see compared to some other run-of-river power projects. Both the transmission lines and the pipes that carry the water, or penstock, are buried underground.

Arthur DeJong, Whistler Blackcomb’s (WB) mountain planning and environmental resource manager, said 70 per cent of the land used for the project was already disturbed. Much of the penstock travels under a forest service road that was in use before the Fitzsimmons project was planned, Closs said.

The environmental impacts are “minimal,” DeJong said, while the project is meaningful in how it offsets the carbon emissions from WB’s operations. WB isn’t directly financially involved in the project, but it was an “obvious choice” to start tackling climate change, he added.

DeJong said he’s not advocating every hydroelectric project, but people need to “consider the ones that work.”

“The status quo is not acceptable,” he said.

DeJong said there are no fish populations at the project’s intake because of “natural impasses.” There are fish downstream, however, and the impacts of the project on habitat are being monitored for the next 10 years, said Elyse MacDonald of Ecofish Research Ltd.

A portion of water from Fitzsimmons Creek enters the project intake through a screen, flows into the regulation chamber and then into the penstock. The water travels downhill, creating kinetic energy, and electricity is produced by the force of moving water on the turbine-generator in the powerhouse.

Water diverted from the creek then flows into WB’s nearby snowmaking pond and then back into the creek.