October 30, 2015, Vancouver, BC, Canada – Knight Piésold Canada was honoured with an Award of Excellence in the Natural Resources, Mining, Industry & Energy category for the Kokish River Hydroelectric Project. The award was presented among industry peers at the 2015 Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards Gala, held on October 23, 2015 at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa.

The Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards, now in their 47^th year, are considered as the highest recognition for excellence in the industry. The Association of Consulting Engineering Companies-Canada (ACEC) and Canadian Consulting Engineer (CCE) magazine jointly presented the awards to consulting engineering firms across Canada, recognizing outstanding achievements of projects that featuring high quality engineering, imagination, and innovation.

Knight Piésold was the lead design engineer for the Kokish River Hydroelectric Project, a 45 MW run-of-river facility located near Port McNeill, British Columbia. We worked closely with the Owner Kwagis Power Limited Partnership (a joint partnership between Brookfield Renewable Energy Group and ‘Namgis First Nation) and EPC Contractor Peter Kiewit Infrastructure Co. to develop innovative and cost-effective solutions that addressed migrating salmon and steelhead trout concerns during construction and commissioning through to operation. The project, which surpassed tough fisheries permitting requirements, included a wrap-around vertical slot fish ladder, one of the largest capacity Coanda screen intakes in the world combined with one of the smallest Obermeyer crest gates in the world, and a tailrace fish screen.

A distinguished panel of 12 independent jurors from various sectors in the industry selected the project because it has “innovative features to provide the safe passage for both adult and juvenile steelhead trout and salmon… [and] the local First Nation was part of the development team and were able to contribute their in-depth traditional knowledge of the site.”

This is the third award that the project has received this year. It was also presented with an Award of Merit in the Energy and Industry category at the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies-British Columbia (ACEC-BC) 2015 Awards for Engineering Excellence and a second place at ACEC-BC’s 2015 People’s Choice Poll.

Photo and video courtesy of ACEC.