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26-558: Two smaller dams, the Mollejon and Vaca, are downstream from the Chalillo Dam. The Mollejon has a capacity of 25.2 MW and the Vaca has a capacity of 19 MW. The three dams together meet approximately 40% of Belize's energy needs. All three dams are operated by Fortis Belize (formerly Belize Electric Company Limited). Chalillo Hydroelectric Dam is situated in the westernmost part of the country where

52-534: A 2,000-acre (8.1 km ) orange grove. He died in 1930. The Public Utilities Act of 1935 broke up utilities. Green's son Ralph Green bought controlling interest in Missouri Public Service. Green was to bring in Middle West Corporation, Missouri Gas & Electric Service Company and City Light and Traction Company of Sedalia, Missouri. Ralph Green died in 1962 and his son Richard Green took

78-711: A 95% interest in Belize Electric Co. Ltd. The Belize Association of Non-Government Organisations took Fortis to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 2003 to have a new environmental assessment of the Chalillo Dam on the Macal River which was a hydroelectricity development project. Ecologists were concerned over the future of species such as the scarlet macaw , the tapir and the black howler monkey as

104-485: A result of this acquisition, Fortis became one of Alberta's major regulated electrical distribution companies, serving 415,000 Albertans in 2005. ATCO Electric is Alberta's other regulated distribution company. Also as a result of the 2003 acquisition, Fortis owns regulated generation, transmission, and distribution assets in British Columbia. In 2007, Fortis acquired Terasen Gas from Kinder Morgan , which had sold

130-600: A single class action alleging top company officials violated the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act requiring that employers manage employees retirement programs responsibly. The company settled the case for $ 10.5 million in April 2007. 66,000 of the company's customers in Missouri lost power for several days in the Mid-December 2007 North American Winter storms . The company began selling its assets and dropped to 891 on

156-526: Is interconnected to Mollejon switchyard. Power is then distributed to BEL's grid via Mollejon. The Chalillo Dam has been controversial since its inception and has been the subject of multiple lawsuits. Most of the controversy surrounding the dam concerns its impact on the environment, specifically on the ecosystems of the Macal River and the Chiquibul Forest. As described in a report commissioned as part of

182-732: The Macal River converges with the Raspaculo River. It is located in the Maya Mountains and shares adjacency with the Chiquibul National Park and the Pine Ridge Forest Reserve. Positioning Chalillo Hydroelectric Dam approximately 16 kilometers from the Guatemalan border. The primary purpose of Chalillo Hydroelectric Dam is to impound the water in the 46m storage dam during the rainy season and release during shortage. At

208-630: The BC gas utility as a non-strategic asset included in its 2005 acquisition of Terasen Inc . In addition to its regulated Canadian assets, Fortis also owns unregulated assets in Ontario, British Columbia, and Newfoundland. The majority of its unregulated business consists of hydroelectric generating plants. Fortis' interests in the Caribbean include a 67% interest in Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) and

234-533: The Environmental Impact Assessment for the dam, the area flooded by the dam's reservoir "contains a rare and discrete floral floodplain habitat which acts as both a conduit and critical habitat for resident and non-resident fauna and avifauna." Notably, the area was a nesting site for the endangered northern subspecies of the Scarlet macaw . There have also been concerns about the safety of the dam, as it

260-835: The Fortune list in 2007. In 2007 its electric assets in northwest Missouri were acquired by its historic rival Kansas City Power & Light (via its new parent Great Plains Energy ) for $ 1.7 billion. Its gas properties, as well as its electric service area in southeastern Colorado (including Pueblo ), were acquired by Black Hills Corporation . In 2006, Aquila Networks sold the Kansas electric properties to Mid-Kansas Electric Company (a cooperative). The Mid-Kansas Electric Company consists of six electric cooperatives: Lane-Scott Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Dighton, Kansas|Dighton), Prairie Land Electric Cooperative, Inc. ( Norton ), Pioneer Electric Cooperative, Inc. ( Ulysses ) (the old Aquila territory for Pioneer

286-577: The Macal River and did not implement an adequate emergency warning system in case the dam broke. Fortis Inc. Fortis Inc. is a St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador -based international diversified electric utility holding company . It operates in Canada , the United States , Central America , and the Caribbean . In 2015, it earned CA$ 6.7 billion . Fortis was formed in 1987, when shareholders of

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312-566: The United States. Gaz Métro offered a higher price and acquired CVPS. On February 21, 2012, CH Energy Group (a holding company for Central Hudson Gas & Electric, an upstate New York utility), announced a pending acquisition by Fortis valued at $ 1.5 billion. On June 27, 2013, Fortis Inc. closed on its acquisition of CHG. In 2013, Fortis announced its acquisition of UNS Energy , an Arizona utility company. On February 9, 2016, Fortis announced an agreement to acquire ITC Holdings Corp. ,

338-472: The base of the dam, through a low level valve, water is released during the dry period. Basically, water is carried from the dam downstream to the powerhouse which protects the generating Kaplan turbines . Subsequent to powering the electric turbines, the water drifts back into the Macal River through the tailrace channel and back to its natural route towards its sister facility, Mollejon hydroelectric power plant. All necessary equipment and controls required for

364-653: The community. In 1922 looking to expand with a generating plant at Clinton, Missouri he took the company public under the name West Missouri Power Company. Its chief rival in the Kansas City metropolitan area was Kansas City Power & Light . The company continued to expand through southwest Missouri. In 1926 he sold it to the Fitkin Group again which merged with the Missouri Public Service Company. Green retired to Escondido, California where bought

390-603: The first environmental case ever heard by that body. In a split 3-2 ruling, the Privy Council discounted the flaws in the EIA and allowed the project to proceed. The fight against the dam was chronicled in the 2009 book The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw by Bruce Barcott . After the completion of the dam, the Belize Institute of Environmental Law and Policy (BELPO) sued Fortis, alleging the company failed to monitor water quality in

416-635: The helm. Richard Green, Jr. took over in 1982. The latest Green looked to expand it beyond its Missouri base and it was renamed UtiliCorp United Inc. in 1985. It bought People's Natural Gas, Northern Minnesota Utilities, West Virginia Power, West Kootenay Power and Light in British Columbia, and Michigan Gas Utilities. In 1989 it assigned its unregulated gas operations to a newly created subsidiary, Aquila Energy Corp. The acquisitions were done by issuing stock and reducing Green family control. In 1991, Centel sold its electric utility holdings in Kansas and Colorado to UtiliCorp for $ 345 million which operated under

442-478: The largest independent transmission utility in the United States, for US$ 11.3 billion in cash and stock. Fortis currently owns the following regulated utilities: Fortis also operates three non-regulated companies: Aquila, Inc. Aquila, Inc. was an electricity and natural gas distribution network headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri in the United States . The company also owned and operated power generation assets. It previously operated under

468-599: The name UtiliCorp United, Inc. The company at one time ranked #33 on the Fortune 500 list. On February 6, 2007, the company announced plans for a merger valued at $ 1.7 billion to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Great Plains Energy . In conjunction with the merger Black Hills Corporation is to acquire its Colorado electric utility and the Colorado, Iowa , Kansas , and Nebraska gas utilities for $ 940 million. The merger closed on July 14, 2008, and Aquila now operates under

494-585: The name Black Hills Energy. Aquila has its roots in the Solomon Valley Milling Company founded in 1902 by Lemuel K. Green in Osborne, Kansas . The steam mill used to process flour and Green discovered he could sell electricity. In 1908 sold the mill and bought the H. M. Spalding Electric Light Plant in Concordia, Kansas . Prior to Green's purchase the plant generated power only dawn to midnight and

520-665: The name WestPlains Energy. Before then, Centel in Colorado was known as Southern Colorado Power Company which was later changed to Centel Electric-Southern Colorado Power Division. Centel in Kansas was previously Western Power and Gas which was changed to Centel Electric-Western Power Division. In 1992 the company entered into a joint venture to distribute and market natural gas in the United Kingdom . From 1995 to 2000 it bought interest in utilities in New Zealand and Australia . In some markets Utilicorp placed electric and phone bills on

546-473: The production of power is contained in the Power House. The circular steel pen stock which is about 80 meters in length and 2.4 meters in diameter facilitates the transport of water from the dam to the power plant. The Kaplan turbine generators equipped with adjustable blades, modern electronic and hydraulic systems help in the production of power. Subsequently, the power is delivered through the 115Kv line which

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572-643: The project would flood 10 km of rainforest in Belize. Celebrities such as Harrison Ford and Cameron Diaz supported a movement to stop this dam. Fortis and the Government of Belize supported the project. On May 30, 2011, it was announced that Fortis has plans to acquire Central Vermont Public Service , an electric utility in the US state of Vermont , for US$ 700 million, pending stockholder and regulatory approval; this acquisition would be Fortis' first utility acquisition in

598-447: The regulated transmission and distribution utility Newfoundland Light & Power Co. voted to form a separate holding company. NL&P shares were exchanged for Fortis shares on a one-to-one basis, with the regulated NL&P becoming a 100% owned subsidiary. The company expanded into Western Canada in 2003 with its purchase of Aquila, Inc. 's Canadian assets, formerly owned by TransAlta , Canada's largest publicly traded utility. As

624-857: The same bill. West Virginia Power was sold to Allegheny Energy in 1999, becoming part of its Monongahela Power subsidiary. In 2001 UtiliCorp spun off Aquila but then bought it back in 2002 and then renamed the entire corporation Aquila, Inc. Aquila's stock price peaked at $ 37.55 in May 2001 and it ranked #33 on the Fortune 500. The stock plummeted to $ 6.75 in July 2002 in the wake of the Enron scandal which had called into question business practices of all electric utilities. In 2004 five lawsuits were filed in federal court alleging that Aquila's board of directors steered employees into heavily investing their retirement savings in company stock. On Jan. 26, 2005, these suits were folded into

650-403: Was built only 550 meters from a fault line . If the dam were to break, it would imperil the downstream town of San Ignacio . Belizean environmental groups sued to stop the construction of the dam. In their lawsuit, they argued that the Environmental Impact Assessment for the dam was flawed and inadequate. The case was eventually appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council , becoming

676-660: Was closed on Sundays. Green bought power from another flour mill and began selling power to neighboring towns. In 1916 he sold the plant to the A.E. Fitkin & Company in New York City for $ 550,000. He then bought the Reeder Light, Ice & Fuel Company in Pleasant Hill, Missouri and renamed the company Green Power & Light Company. He then built Baldwin Lake which was used for hydroelectric power as well as provide water for

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