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Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro officials are warning that there may not be enough electricity to meet demand — and rotating outages are possible.
The reason? For the first time since 1967, the Bay d’Espoir plant is completely shut down. It’s the largest generating plant on the island.
“There is a risk of a power emergency this weekend,” said Hydro’s vice-president of engineering and Newfoundland and Labrador system operator Rob Collett.
Power will get turned off in one neighbourhood or community, but advance notice isn’t possible, said Byron Chubbs, vice-president of engineering and energy supply with Newfoundland Power.
The timeline for the rotating outages would be approximately 60 minutes or less, said Chubbs.
“Everyone will take a turn to be without power so that the electricity continues to flow for the island,” said Chubbs.
It’s unknown right now if the power grid will actually reach an emergency, but officials are focusing their attention on Saturday evening.
“Our expectation is that the tightest pinch on the system will start this evening,” Collett said. “This is the coldest part of the cold snap.”
He said the utilities are hopeful that an emergency won’t happen, but they’re asking customers to prepare by checking generators, charging phones and having flashlights on hand.
Collett said he understands that some people will immediately think of DarkNL.
The January 2014 event saw tens of thousands of customers in Newfoundland and parts of Labrador without electricity for days, amid frigid temperatures. It exposed vulnerabilities in the province’s electrical infrastructure.
“That is absolutely not the circumstance,” he said.
DarkNL, Collett said, saw the system collapse and the network had to be restored piece-by-piece.
Frazil ice causing big problems
On Friday, Hydro issued a power warning because the electricity supply was getting close to maximum capacity due to high power demand and ongoing frazil ice issues at the Bay d’Espoir plant.
Frazil ice forms in supercooled water, or water that remains liquid in below freezing temperatures. It consists of small ice crystals suspended in the water that can build up and block water intakes, which can impact water supply facilities like hydropower plants.
Collett likens the mixture to slushie machines you see in gas stations.
“The ice gets stuck in your straw”, he said, explaining what happened at the Bay d’Espoir plant.
“We could not have foreseen this happening at Bay d’Espoir”
A team, including divers with special equipment, is working to remove the ice at the Bay d’Espoir plant, the company wrote Friday night.
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