 Construction began in 1980, and it opened in 1984, it was constructed by Nova Scotia Power, at the time a provincial crown corporation.The decision to build the facility was partly prompted by the promise of federal funding for this alternative energy project, and the existence of a rock-filled causeway which had been built on the Annapolis River in 1960 by the Maritime Marshlands Reclamation Authority to block the Bay of Fundy tides from entering the river to replace the function of the existing dykes along the river banks.The causeway houses the power house and sluice gates.