Some interruptions possible bringing new turbine online, says NL Hydro

A new combustion turbine is expected to be online by next week, but Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro warns some customers may experience brief interruptions during testing.

Rob Henderson, a vice-president at NL Hydro, said the new $120-million generator at Holyrood is in the final stages and should be bringing power to the province's system next week.

However, Henderson said during testing to make sure the turbine functions properly with the system means some outages are possible.

"We do tests before it goes connected to the power system and we do additional tests when it gets connected to make sure everything is working right, and in some cases while you're doing those tests something could happen to the unit and the new equipment that may cause the unit to shut down suddenly," he said.

"When that happens it's possible that customers may see a short interruption. It would be less than 10 minutes and it would be only a few customers that would be impacted."

Henderson said Hydro has the system ready so if interruptions occur, the impact has been minimized and outages would be for "very few" customers.

He added these outages would "absolutely not" be widespread provincial outages, but could happen to customers scattered around the province.