N.B. nuclear plant's ongoing troubles an early threat to Holt government finances

More than 200 days after going offline for what was supposed to be a 98-day maintenance shutdown the Point Lepreau nuclear generating station remains idle with no definite word on when it will be able to generate electricity again.

In an email last week  the utility declined to commit to a previously estimated mid-November restart date and will say only that it has a "goal" of completing repairs on the station's troubled generator sometime in November.

However, reconnecting to New Brunswick's electrical grid following repairs will take an uncertain amount of additional time, according to N.B. Power spokesperson Dominique Couture.

"The next steps will be to proceed with start-up activities including Station equipment checks and testing protocol,"  Couture said in an email to CBC News about what happens when repairs are complete.

"The timeline for full return to service will be determined by how these activities progress."

That is a potential problem for the incoming government of Susan Holt, whose Liberal Party won the New Brunswick election a week ago.

Cost climbing daily

Bills for the latest troubles afflicting the nuclear plant passed $100 million in late September and are climbing at a rate of $1 million a day or more with some uncertainty over who will pay.

An upcoming decision of the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board will rule on a number of matters concerning N.B. Power and the rates it charges, including whether Lepreau breakdown costs should continue to be paid by N.B. Power customers or be shifted to the utility and its owner — the provincial government.

Hearings conducted by the EUB into those matters ended nine weeks ago, but no decision has been released to date.

"There are many, many issues and the board will do its very best to endeavour to have a decision as quickly as we can, but that obviously will take some time," the EUB's Christopher Stewart noted at the conclusion of final arguments in the rate hearing on Aug. 26.

More complex than expected

The latest problems at Lepreau began after it was taken offline April 6 for what was supposed to be a 98-day maintenance shutdown.

After sitting idle for three months during that period, the plant's 700-megawatt generator, which had not been among the components worked on during the outage, showed a problem during routine testing done on all plant equipment prior to being restarted.

Engineers disassembled the generator to analyze and fix the problem and in mid-July, N.B. Power's director of regulatory and external affairs, Jason Nouwens, said a solution would be time-consuming but straightforward and predicted the generating station would be producing power well before the fall.

"At this point we are estimating early September for a return-to-service date," said Nouwens, who was testifying in front of the EUB during N.B. Power's rate hearing.

But the problem with the generator proved more complex than expected and in August, with little detailed explanation, the utility moved the expected date of Lepreau's return from early September to mid-November.

It now says it is not sure when the plant will be operational.

Colder weather will increase energy replacement costs

In the summer, the utility told the EUB that delaying Lepreau's return to service by seven weeks, from mid-July to Sept. 1, would add an estimated $71 million in unbudgeted costs to the original 98-day maintenance outage.

That included an expected $20 million in unbudgeted repairs to the generator and $51 million in costs to pay for replacement energy while Lepreau remained offline. Adding another 11 weeks or more to that downtime, some of that during colder fall weather when replacement energy costs begin to rise, will more than double those amounts.

It is a serious financial setback for N.B. Power.

Ratepayer frustrations

Major customers of N.B. Power have been expressing increasing levels of alarm about the nuclear plant's poor performance and frustration that they are having to pay for its shortcomings.

Problems at Lepreau were a major element behind N.B. Power's application to the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board to raise power rates 19.4 per cent over two years, including an average of 9.25 per cent this year and another 9.25 per cent next April.

In August, the forestry company J.D. Irving Ltd. and New Brunswick's three municipal utilities all asked the EUB to lower those increases as much as possible, in part by barring N.B. Power from charging its customers for the costs of ongoing poor performance and breakdowns at Lepreau.

They suggested that unlike storm damage, or rising fuel prices that are outside N.B. Power's control, failings at the nuclear plant can mostly be traced to poor maintenance, poor management and poor decision-making.

They argued N.B. Power and the provincial government should be forced to absorb the financial costs of Lepreau's troubles on their own and asked the EUB to make that happen in its ruling.

"My client's position is that the costs that have been occasioned in particular by the horrible performance of Point Lepreau cannot continue to be visited upon ratepayers," J.D. Irving lawyer Glenn Zacher said in explaining the company's position.

"And if the end result is a worsening financial structure … then that's a proper discussion between N.B. Power and its shareholder, the province."

Ryan Burgoyne, a lawyer representing Saint John Energy, Edmundston Energy, and the Perth-Andover Electric Light Commission, endorsed that position in his own closing argument.

A spokesperson for Holt's incoming government said it is still waiting on full briefings from the civil service and N.B. Power on a variety of matters and would have no comment on troubles at Lepreau or their potential financial consequences "until the team is officially sworn in [Nov. 2]."