Aging Point Lepreau nuclear plant is running like a newborn

New Brunswick's 37-year-old nuclear plant at Point Lepreau quietly completed a full year of uninterrupted power generation earlier this week, the first since its pre-teen years in the early 1990s.  

It's a significant development that, if sustainable, holds the potential to alter the financial fortunes of NB Power.

"This accomplishment, especially through the COVID-19 pandemic, is something the station is proud of," the utility said in a statement about the milestone.

The nuclear plant was shut down for a week last summer for an unexpected repair but since coming back online on July 15, 2019, it has run trouble free.

Over the last year, Lepreau has generated close to 5.8 terawatt hours of electricity for distribution, about $400 million worth depending on market prices, and close to 100 per cent of its maximum capacity.

NB Power believes it is the longest the plant has run without shutting down since at least 1994, and perhaps ever, since earlier records are not easily accessed.

"It is a bit more difficult to go any further than the 26 years (1994)," said NB Power spokesperson Marc Belliveau in an email about whether it has ever run longer.

The flawless year of operation for Lepreau follows the investment of several hundred million dollars in the plant to solve serious performance problems that emerged following its $2.4 billion refurbishment that ended in 2012.

It produced only 90 per cent of the electricity expected of it during the first seven and a half years after refurbishment due to a number of malfunctions in non nuclear equipment that had not been upgraded during the effort to replace nuclear components.

$500 million in repairs

Multiple unscheduled shutdowns caused by the malfunctions between 2012 and last July cost NB Power more than $200 million in lost electrical production and pushed the cost of capital repairs and upgrades to improve reliability at Lepreau to more than $500 million.

That has been weighing down NB Power's bottom line and undermining plans to pay down debt.

At rate hearings in front of the Energy and Utilities Board over several years, utility executives have been predicting the heavy expenditures at Lepreau would eventually pay off in increased reliability.

It has and NB Power now expects Lepreau to fuel an increase in its profitability.

"If we think about what have been the primary drivers that have led to subpar (financial) performance the last number of years, we can point to Point Lepreau's performance coming out of the refurbishment," NB Power's chief financial officer, Darren Murphy, said at hearings in February during Lepreau's current mistake-free run.

"Unfortunately, it did not perform as we would have liked. However … we have been able to substantially improve the performance of Point Lepreau, therefore, reducing the risk that Lepreau will be the (cause) of subpar performance."  

Originally, Lepreau was scheduled to be taken offline in April for annual maintenance but COVID-19 restrictions in the province derailed those plans until September. Instead it has kept running and setting production records.