Niagara Ice Queen gets ready

Even on a day of great summer weather like this — we always know that winter isn’t that far off. And Ontario Power Generation is getting one of its critical pieces of equipment ready for the winter. It’s a rugged little icebreaker that helps keep the lights on in our homes.

With the summer breezes blowing along the Niagara River, the Niagara Queen Two is still showing the marks of last year’s severe winter.

One of the reasons it’s been lifted onto shore for its annual maintenance, so it can help keep the electricity flowing to Ontario homes.

Tony Van Oostrom/Ontario Power Generation: “It’s actually designed as a knife so it cuts through the knife its pointed like a ‘v’ and as it cuts through the ice is cuts through and breaks it.”

The Niagara Queen is a specialized vessel. 82 tonnes and 19 metres long with a flat bottom and a bow designed to cut through sheets of solid ice, and icebergs almost towering over it.

And it’s designed for shallow waters bigger government icebreakers can’t reach.

It works along with the New York Power Authority’s icebreaker William H. Latham from the U.S. side of the river.

When there is ice in the winter, the icebreaker’s job is to keep it from blocking the water flow to the tunnels marked by these towers along the Niagara River.

Those are the tunnels that feed the generating station further down river, which were plagued with ice blockages in the past.

Tony Van Oostrom, Ontario Power Generation: “So in the winter there’s a risk of the tunnels which these intake structures serve could get blocked with the ice and the reason the icebreaker’s here is to keep the water free and keep them flowing so we can generate electricity.”

Last winter was a tough one, with the Niagara Queen at one point working 21 days non-stop.

Tony Van Oostrom: “It was hard on the vessel. It was hard on our crews to be out that duration of time.”

But Ontario Power Generation says the vessel will be ready for whatever arrives this coming winter.

This summer maintenance is going to cost about half a million dollars. And the vessel will be back in the water in November. So we don’t want to think about winter right now, but when it comes the Niagara Queen will be going back to work.