Hydro power plant in British Columbia, Canada. Approximate location 49.7178, -123.0546.
HydroBritish ColumbiaCanada
Upper Mamquam is a 25 MW hydro power plant in British Columbia, Canada. It is operated by TransAlta (100%). Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 25k homes (estimated). It ranks #528 of 1,211 Canada power plants by installed capacity. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, hydro supplies about 52.8% of Canada's electricity; the national grid averages 191 gCO₂/kWh (77.0% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id CAN0008500.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The public capacity above is the current source-record value. A 2026 tracker candidate lists 58 MW for Mamquam hydroelectric plant, but it is not used as the public primary value until scope is verified (unit vs operating vs installed/project total).
Capacity claim grade: C_REVIEW_MANUAL - recommended action: manual_review_only - confidence: unknown. This follows a claim-based data model: value + scope + source + confidence, rather than silently overwriting records.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: GEM tracker 2026 (location L100001022917); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 25 MW, Upper Mamquam is well above the median hydro plant in Canada (12 MW). Hydropower converts the energy of falling or flowing water into electricity; output depends on rainfall and reservoir level, and large dams also provide grid balancing and storage.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by TransAlta (100%). All plants by this company →
This hydro plant converts the energy of falling or flowing water through hydro turbines. It sits in a temperate oceanic climate (Köppen Cfb) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 49.7°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
Heating degree-days here run 97% above the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.
Climate heat-demand index: 93/100 — this site sits in the top third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in a mild atmospheric environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C2 — Low), with humidity / wetness the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #210 largest hydro power plant of 556 in Canada by capacity.
Canada has 556 hydro power plants in this dataset, together about 81,037 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 49.7178, -123.0546 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Upper Mamquam is a 25 MW source-record hydro power plant in British Columbia, Canada.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 25,028 homes (estimated).
Upper Mamquam is operated by TransAlta (100%).
