Ice Boom at Jenpeg Generating Station

The Ice Boom was designed to form and retain an ice cover upstream of the Jenpeg GS in order to minimize frazil ice production, which has been known to cause operational problems at the spillway, tunnels, and penstocks, as well as intake blockages. The Ice Boom is designed to form an upstream ice cover during the freeze up period, to retain the ice in winter and to resist the mobile ice forces during the breakup period. In addition to resisting ice, the Ice Boom was designed to resist the high currents present during the spring season. The high current causes a constant back and forth movement of the boom, which contributes to the early failure of the boom’s components, due to fatigue wear. In order to prevent this from occurring, the Ice Boom was placed strategically in an area away from these high currents, determined by a bathymetric survey.

The boom has retained the ice during its first winter of 2011-2012, and has not required any maintenance. Since the boom was installed, the plant has not suffered any production losses due to ice.