N.L. Hydro, Newfoundland Power provide update on hydro station choked with ice

N.L. Hydro, newfoundland dog force power scheme update

While a power warning is still in effect for the island of Newfoundland, Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro says power at the Bay d’Espoir hydroelectric generating plant is slowly being brought back online.

Throughout the day Saturday, teams made significant progress removing frazil ice, said Hydro's vice-president of engineering and Newfoundland and Labrador system operator Rob Collett.

“We're not out of the woods but we're absolutely seeing daylight from where we are right now,” Collett told reporters at noon.

This is a breaking news story.

A previous version of this story is below. 

Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro says that ice removal efforts at the Bay d’Espoir power plant have been “very successful.”

On Friday, Hydro announced that a buildup of frazil ice, a slushy mix of ice crystals suspended in water, had blocked the intake at the plant, forcing it to entirely shut down for the first time since 1967.

A team of divers was deployed into the frigid water with air compressors to try and clear the ice.

On Sunday morning, the utility provided an update on social media saying that the effort was working and that several units at the plant had been restarted. 

However, to ensure stability of the grid they were being brought back online gradually.

Power Warnings remained in place Sunday, with both Hydro and Newfoundland Power continuing to ask customers to conserve power and prepare for the possibility of rotating outages. 

Municipalities and businesses across the island part of the province reacted swiftly to the request to conserve power to avoid another DarkNL.

The January 2014 event saw tens of thousands of customers in Newfoundland and parts of Labrador without electricity for days, amid frigid temperatures.

Now, several municipalities have closed facilities entirely. The City of Corner Brook announced Saturday that they would be closing all city buildings until further notice. This included the Civic Centre and City Hall.

As well, the City switched their water treatment plant to generator mode, removing its load on the grid, but also to avoid possible interruptions in service the event of an outage.

Mount Pearl and CBS have likewise switched public works to generator power, and closed several facilities, including the Glacier, the Summit centre, and the CBS Recreation Complex, which the town calls its "greatest consumer of electricity."

St. John's and the town of Paradise are largely keeping facilities open, but in a state of reduced power consumption. Those measures include reduced heating and lighting and in some cases switching to generator power.

Businesses, too, are doing their part.

The Avalon Mall in St. John’s announced to its shoppers it would be reducing lighting for the remainder of the power warning.

Journalist

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