Barrage Hydroélectrique du Péligre

February 29th, 2012

School was closed last week.  The beginning of the week was carnival, Thursday was a teacher’s workshop on teaching Bible and Friday was a STAFF OUTING to the dam in Péligre, just outside of Mirebalais.

It was really interesting seeing the dam, checking out the turbines up close and going into the control room – seeing the switch that gives Port au Prince power!  The staff loved the outing, there was some amazing beauty on the way and at the dam.  Our tour guide was fantastic, very knowledgable and informative.  Having a tour in Haiti was extremely interesting.  (It would be interesting to see the reaction of the Recreational Safety Board of Niagara Falls if they saw what was shown to us during the tour – access to the control room, being able to turn any switch that we wanted, standing beside an active turbine with no rails or protection etc.  They probably would have received a heart attack) 

For those who are interested here is some info on the dam (stolen from Wikipedia) :

• The largest hydroelectric dam on the Island of Hispanolia
• The dam was created as a flood-control and an energy-providing measure in the Artibonite river valley as part of the Artibonite Valley Agricultural Project in the 1930s.
• The dam was completed in 1956
• The Peligre Hydroelectric Plant and its consequent operation was completed in 1971.
• The plant situated on the dam provides the country with most of its needed electricity.
• Recently a rapid rate of silt deposition has occurred in the Peligre Reservoir reducing the energy producing capability of the reservoir. (due to deforestation)
• The power plant, though needed, has fallen into near disrepair.
• The EDH (Électricité d’Haïti), Haiti’s federal electricity supplier, has done relatively little to restructure the plant.