Hydro to spend millions on emergency repair work

Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro is asking the Public Utilities Board (PUB) for permission to spend more than $17 million in emergency funding for two major and unexpected repair jobs.

In the first of two applications, the power company is requesting permission to spend $4.6 million to fix damage to access roads in central Newfoundland caused by rain from Hurricane Matthew last month.

"We've got significant road washouts," said Jennifer Williams, Hydro's vice-president of production. "On initial count, we had as many as 24 major washouts. A major washout would be as many as 200 dump truck loads of fill that would be required to fill that washout."

"These roads provide access to upstream hydro plants as well as water control structures. We have to have access to those structures to provide reliable service," said Williams.

The second Hydro application is for $12.9 million to repair faulty welds in the Bay d'Espoir penstock. The penstock is a sort of sluice that feeds water into power generation stations. The bad welding has caused two cracks in the structure, which means it can't be used again until it's fixed.

Williams said that makes the work urgent.

"We have to have that done in advance of December first. The penstock feeds two units at Bay d'Espoir plant, which is 150 megawatts. We need this online by December first so we can provide reliable service throughout the winter."

Williams said Hydro has already hired a contractor to replace 700 metres of linear weld on the penstock in an effort to get the work done on time.

She said it could take some time for the PUB to grant the request for extra money, but the repairs must be done immediately, regardless.

"We're proceeding with the work. The PUB will then review this expenditure in the next series of applications we send to them to have the cost recovered. It's a little bit of a different application to allow a utility to proceed on an urgent basis."

Williams said the repair work is currently on schedule.