Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro is getting ready for more testing of the Labrador-Island Link after reaching a new peak electricity consumption record this weekend. NTV’s David Salter reports.
It was a busy weather weekend across Newfoundland and Labrador, and with freezing temperatures for much of the province, Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro had a record breaking day.
NL Hydro hit an all time high electricity system peak on Saturday. Although there was no official conservation call, NL Hydro had been encouraging residents to be a little more energy efficient, by reducing heat, and turning off some lights.
The island electricity consumption peak on Saturday was about ~1730 MW. The previous record was set back in 2019 at ~1720 MW.
Two trips on the electrical system briefly left tens of thousands of customers without power Monday evening, Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro says.
“The first involved a trip of a transmission line near Stephenville and the Maritime Link, which affected Newfoundland Power customers in the Stephenville area,” the company said in a statement. “All customers were restored within 55 minutes.
“The second occurred while bringing the Maritime Link back into service. The Maritime Link tripped resulting in Stephenville customers to again lose power. During this event, both poles of the Labrador Island Link had been delivering around 450 MW. While LIL did not trip, power flow decreased from 450 MW down to 175 MW. This caused a brief outage to some customers across the island. LIL was quickly brought back up to 422 MW. Newfoundland Power has informed us that approximately 31K customers were impacted during this event. All customers were restored within 15 minutes. Our investigation into the event is ongoing.”
Hydro says these trips are designed to protect the system from further equipment issues, but in the process, customers may be disconnected from the electricity grid for a brief time, usually less than 30 minutes.
An unplanned outage affecting customers on Fogo Island is unrelated to these events.
Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro has launched an investigation into why equipment on the Labrador-Island Link keeps failing. NTV’s Colleen Lewis reports.
It’s not yet officially winter, and already the province has seen one recent significant power outage. Will we be in the dark again?
NTV’s Rosie Mullaley spoke with a Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro official about what we might expect this winter, and how the company is getting prepared.
There were brief power outages across much of Newfoundland Monday morning because of a significant event with the Maritime Link, Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro says.
“This morning we experienced a significant event on the system,” N.L. Hydro said in a statement. “After the Maritime Link had been ramped down following scheduled exports to Nova Scotia, it experienced significant power swings which resulted in oscillations in system frequency. This resulted in the activation of the Island’s Under frequency Load Shedding scheme, leading to widely dispersed customer outages. The system has since stabilized. Our investigation into the event is ongoing.
Most customers have since had their power restored or are in the process of restoration.
One of the key architects of the Muskrat Falls project has had his position eliminated at Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro. Gilbert Bennett was cited by the Muskrat Falls Inquiry for taking “unprincipled steps” to get the project sanctioned, but he’s still walking away with a $1-million severance package. NTV’s Ben Cleary reports.
