‘Not out of woods’ N.L. Hydro says, as hydro station slowly restarts

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.

Collett said a breakthrough Saturday evening allowed divers to remove ice sheets “the size of mattresses.” 

Now only one of the plant’s four penstocks, a large pipe that controls water flow, is blocked. As a result, Collett said they were able to activate six of the seven generators. 

“Throughout the night we nursed them slowly and steadily,” Collett told reporters at noon.

“We're not out of the woods but we're absolutely seeing daylight from where we are right now,” he said.

Although encouraged by progress, Byron Chubbs, vice-president of engineering and energy supply with Newfoundland Power, said customers should remain prepared for rotating power outages.

Chubbs also asked that customers to continue power conservation efforts.

“Keep doing what you are doing right now, because it is making a difference,” he said.

Chubbs asked people to avoid using energy unnecessarily, turn thermostats down by a few degrees and avoid using larger appliances like clothes dryers.

Collett said he knows people will have questions about possible the status of schools Monday morning, but for now they have to take things “slowly and steadily” until they are able to better able to determine how tomorrow will look.

“I can say that we're optimistic,” said Collett.

In an emailed statement sent on behalf of Education Minister Paul Dinn, CBC News was told schools are scheduled to be open on Monday for now, but the department is ready to respond as needed if the situation changes. 

“Any announcements regarding closures will be communicated through regular channels, including the NLSchools website,” reads the statement.

N.L. Hydro says updates will continue to be made regularly on social media and people can expect more information Sunday evening.

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.

Cold temperatures impacting imports

Extreme cold temperatures in Nova Scotia are also impacting N.L.'s ability to import more power, said Collett, as it means they're “approaching capacity on their system."

Over the past few days, he said N.L. has received power from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and New England through the Maritime Link — transmission lines the province usually uses to export power. 

But he said imported power is “non-firm,” and is more scarce during peak hours.

Meanwhile, N.L. Hydro is continuing to improve capacity on the island.

Teams are working to repair Holyrood, “to get as much generation on the grid as possible,” said Chubbs. 

He said one of the three generators is now running at almost full capacity.

Collett said a second unit is running at reduced capacity and a specialist is on the way to troubleshoot. The third unit’s turbine is also currently being overhauled and it should completed by Jan. 31.

“We're working around the clock. We have night shifts going on all this week to try to advance that time on as best we can,” he said.

Not DarkNL, but dimmer

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.

White Hills Resort in Clarenville decided to temporarily close on Sunday due to concerns over possible power outages and to help with energy conservation efforts.

Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our daily headlines newsletter here. Click here to visit our landing page.