Interim PUB #darknl report prescribes immediate action

The Public Utilities Board (PUB)released aninterim report Friday on its investigation into the power outages and supply issues that left much of the province in darkness earlier this year.

Many of the concerns addressed in the PUB report echoed those outlined in a previous external interim review conducted by the Liberty Consulting Group in April.

After the widespread power outagesfromJanuary 2 to 8, the board set out to investigate and report on the circumstances surrounding them.

The interim report focusedon immediate actions needed to reduce the risk of similar events on the IslandInterconnected System over the 2014-2016 period, stating there remainsa "continuing and unacceptably high risk of outages" until 2017.

• Costs will rise to prevent second #darknl, advocate says
• Power outages likely until 2017, #darknl interim report warns

The interim report finds the January 2014 outages were the result of two separate issues.

According to the PUB, there was a lack of available generation capacity to meet customer demand on the island. This resulted in therequest for customer conservation and rotating power outages on January 2 and 3.

Subsequently, there werefailures on Newfoundland Hydros bulk transmission system causingfurther widespread outages beginning on January 4

The PUBidentifieda number of contributing causes to this.

It points to Hydro's deferral of testing and preventive maintenance, and the timing and execution of repairs. This includes work on the transformer and circuit breaker at Sunnyside, which failed and caught fire, and decisions on the timing of work at the Hardwoods and Stephenville gas turbines.

Hydro also failed to ensure the availability of qualified resources and failed to procure critical spare parts for its generation assets.

The PUB's report outlinesinterim findings only; final conclusions as to the causes and contributing factorswill not be possible until the PUBs final report, slated to be released this fall.

Immediate next steps

The boardidentified some key priority actions that Hydro should complete by December 1 of this year, in preparation for the next winter season.

It calls for Hydro to make changes in itsapproach forload forecasting and generation planning to include greater sensitivity to weather.

The PUB said Hydro shouldcompleteoutstanding testing and necessary maintenance andproceed withnecessary work on the emergency generation system.

Investigation continues

The PUBs investigation will continue throughout 2014, withpublic presentations to be heardlater this spring.

A series of public presentations will be held at locations throughout the province.

The deadline for expressions of interest in presenting at these sessions is May 21.