Nalcor, Emera reach deal in Muskrat Falls project

Newfoundland's Crown Energy corporation, Nalcor, has reached a deal with Nova Scotia's private power utility, Emera, to finalize details of the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project in Labrador.

Sources tell CBC news the deal will be announced Tuesday morning.

The provincial governments of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador have both called news conferences to make energy announcements.

A transmission link from Labrador to Newfoundland would cost $2.1 billion, $600 million of which would be provided Emera. It would include a 30-kilometre underwater connection across the Strait of Belle Isle.

The project would see an underwater link between Cape Ray, N.L., and Lingan on Cape Breton at a cost of $1.2 billion.

In exchange for building the $1.2 billion link and contributing millions more to the cost of infrastructure on Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia would get 170 megawatts of energy— about eight to 10 per cent of that province's total power needs— for 35 years which equals about 10 per cent of the province's total energy need.