Newfoundland and Labrador Power Commission

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The Newfoundland Power Commission (NPC) is the former name for the Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro Corporation.

The NPC was created in 1954 by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to provide rural electrification across the province. The NPC made its first significant development in 1958 when it installed a 200 kilowatt (kW) diesel generator at Happy Valley-Goose Bay in Labrador, although the first hydroelectric generating station in Labrador had been built at Menihek Lake in 1954 by the Iron Ore Company of Canada to supply electricity to the mining operations at Schefferville, Quebec.

In 1964 the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador transferred the responsibility for the rural electrification programme from the NPC to the Newfoundland and Labrador Rural Electrification Authority. The Rural Electrification Authority was replaced by four Power Distribution Districts which were consolidated into the Power Distribution of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1971.

In 1965 the NPC was reorganized and made responsible for the development of the province's first major hydroelectric project Bay d’Espoir Hydro Electric Development. In conjunction with this project the NPC was directed to build an island-wide high voltage transmission grid which would interconnect all of the island's larger generating and distribution facilities, as well as convert the 50-hertz districts on the island's West Coast to the North American standard of 60 hertz.

In 1975, Newfoundland and Labrador Power Commission was renamed Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro Corporation.

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