In Newfoundland, 'commissioning' of troubled hydro dam met with skepticism, unease

Though Muskrat Falls has weighed heavily onNewfoundland and Labrador's finances and residents' morale, reactionwas surprisingly muted to an announcement this week that the projectis finally considered to be in working order.

The project is years overdue and billions over budget, butNewfoundland and Labrador Hydro CEO Jennifer Williams' declarationWednesday that the project is now considered "commissioned" camebefore a handful of reporters in a corporate boardroom. It promptedno press releases from politicians, nor did they post about theachievement on social media.

"There is still reason to be very skeptical about many aspectsof the project," said St. John's businessman Des Sullivan, who hastracked the development for more than a decade on his blog, calledUncle Gnarly. "There are still massive questions surrounding thisproject. I think that the Hydro CEO may be a little ahead ofherself."

Muskrat Falls was officially approved in 2012 by the ProgressiveConservative provincial government of the day. Its costs haveballooned from about $7.4 billion to more than $13 billion, and itssetbacks were the subject of a lengthy public inquiry that began in2018.

Williams got emotional Wednesday as she announced that theproject passed a final round of testing on the 1,100-kilometre-longtransmission system linking the generating station in Labrador to aconverter station outside St. John's. Called the Labrador-IslandLink, the transmission network, as well as the software thatoperates it, has been the source of most of the project's recentyears of delays.

"The testing that we just concluded considers this project nowcommissioned," Williams toldreporters, adding that there is still paperwork to complete with the federal government before it can be declared "officially commissioned."

"Commissioned" means Muskrat Falls is performing well enough tobe factored into long-term planning, Williams said. But Sullivan isnot convinced.

"She is taking, by their definition, a single success andsaying, 'Hey, we're out of the woods,"' he said."Sorry, that's not how life works."

Larry Hughes, an engineering professor at Dalhousie University,agrees with Sullivan. He said the link hasn't yet performed wellenough through a winter to be relied upon.

"Granted, this needs to come to an end somewhere, but they doneed winter testing to demonstrate that this works," he said in aninterview. "Because last winter, there were a great number ofproblems with their winter testing."

He pointed to the software issues as well as ice damage to powerlines as examples. And there are still software updates and tests tocome, Hughes and Sullivan noted.

Rates to rise

Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro is waiting for an updated versionof the Labrador-Island Link's software that will fix bugs found inFebruary, Williams said Wednesday. The system passed tests over theweekend showing it can keep delivering 700 megawatts of power if oneof its lines fails, but those tests will be repeated at 900megawatts, she said.

Electricity rates in the province will also go up in order to payfor the project, though Williams said her team is still hammeringout a rate mitigation planwith the provincial government. Whenthe provincial government struck a financing deal with Ottawa in2021, officials said they expected rates to climb to 14.7 cents perkilowatt-hour when the project is officially commissioned, withregular increases each year.

Current residential rates sit at about 12.2 cents an hour,according to the Crown energy corporation's website.

St. John's artist Rhonda Pelley said she worries people won't beable to afford the rate hikes. Pelley has long been followingMuskrat Falls news; in 2018, she created a series of Newfoundlandtarot cards to examine the "psychic territory" that allowed theproject to go ahead.

"I find Muskrat Falls to be one of the most heartbreaking thingsto happen to the province," she said, adding thatWednesday's commissioning announcement didn't alleviate any of thatpain. "I still don't believe it's going to work."

A spokesperson for Premier Andrew Furey said he was unavailablefor comment about this week's announcement.

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