Rate mitigation talks ongoing over weekend: Ball

The January deadline to have a rate mitigation plan in place for Muskrat Fallsbetween the provincial and federal governments has come and gone.

However, Premier Dwight Ball told reporters on Friday conversations between both governments are continuing aftera week of "considerable advancement."

"We're not quite there yet. We'll be working through the weekend with officials," he said.

The Public Utilities Board report on rate mitigation is expected to be submitted to government by Friday afternoon. Ball said the plan is to release it as soon as it's received. The premier addedhe will also take the weekend to review the report, insisting that both governments are still committed to a rate mitigation plan.

"This is a big task that we've taken on. A lot of work has been done, as I've said. A lot of this involves many of the financial constructs that are in place on the Muskrat Fall project," Ball said.

"We all know the profound impact that it would have on our province, the impact on rates ... Hopefully through the weekend we'll have an update that we can provide early next week."

Ball said Muskrat Falls, for all intents and purposes, is completed aside from having software hiccups and issues with the synchronous condensers at Soldiers Pond whereDC power from Muskrat Falls will be converted to AC powerthen distributed to homes and businesses across the province.

According to Ball electricity can still flow over the transmission lines without the condensers in place, but if that were the case it would mean that the project would not be running at 100 per cent.

Ball wouldn't say that the original plan for rate payers to pay13.5 cents per kilowatt hour is still the target forthe mitigation plan, but the premier did say the province is moving forward with the plan the Liberals ran an election on.

Risk assessment

Before a rate mitigation plan can be put in place, Ball said the government needs to figure out what risks are involved as the project comes online,the value of those risks and then a rate mitigation plan that could provide for that level of variability.

"This is where it gets a little tangly, and not always easy to find the exact answers," he said.

Ball said Nalcor is trying to quantify what the risks from the project would be. He added that the company is aware that risks exist, as arethe provincial and federal governments. He saysit isn't being ignored andadmits that any risk could have an impact on electricity rates.

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