Keeping Holyrood power plant open beyond 2030 would cost hundreds of millions

Patrick Butler · Radio-Canada

· Posted: Mar 18, 2025 4:30 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

Keeping the aging Holyrood Thermal Generating Station unfastened conscionable 5 years beyond its imaginable 2030 status day would outgo Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro much than $700 million. 

That estimation includes operating and superior costs astatine the 490-megawatt installation from 2031 to 2035, arsenic predicted successful a caller 46-page study from autarkic consultants Hatch. It besides takes into relationship substance outgo estimates from N.L. Hydro for the aforesaid period.

The Holyrood plant, a peaking installation opened successful 1970 that helps conscionable request connected the Avalon peninsula during the colder months, was expected to adjacent aft the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric task came online. 

But concerns stay arsenic to the reliability of the 1,100-kilometre Labrador-Island Link transmission strategy linking the 824-megawatt dam to eastbound Newfoundland.

For years, N.L. Hydro has repeatedly said Holyrood volition stay unfastened until 2030 "or until specified clip that capable alternate procreation is commissioned, capable show of the Labrador-Island Link is proven, and procreation reserves are met."

In a connection connected Monday, the Crown utility's spokesperson Jill Pitcher said "it is important we recognize immoderate imaginable impacts if Holyrood, successful immoderate capacity, was required station 2030 to guarantee continued reliable transportation of electricity, astatine the slightest imaginable outgo to our customers."

Signals works could stay online aft 2030

While Holyrood's aboriginal aft 2030 remains uncertain, a presumption submitted to the Public Utilities Board (PUB) successful May 2023 indicated "Any new proviso is 7 to 10 years distant from clip of approval."

So far, N.L. Hydro hasn't submitted a ceremonial exertion to the PUB to physique caller procreation assets, but it is promising to record a connection this period seeking the board's support to physique a caller 150-megawatt state turbine successful Holyrood and a caller 150-megawatt generating portion astatine the existing Bay d'Espoir hydroelectric dam successful confederate Newfoundland. 

Officials astatine N.L. Hydro said past July that the 2 projects and their associated transmission assets would outgo betwixt $1.2 and $1.6 billion. N.L. Hydro is besides proposing 400 megawatts of upwind procreation beryllium developed by the backstage sector. 

Costs betwixt present and extremity of decade also balloon

The Hatch report, requested by the PUB and dated March 4, is simply a "refresh" to a 2022 analysis, besides produced by the company, that looked astatine operating, superior and fuels costs astatine Holyrood from 2022 to 2030. 

"Capital costs for 2025–2030, inclusive, person accrued by astir $44 cardinal compared to those presented successful the 2022 report", reads the latest report. "The further costs are attributed to the summation successful the costs of instrumentality and services owed to ostentation since 2021 and see further recommended projects based connected findings from caller inspections."

The dense lipid needed to tally the works betwixt present and 2030 volition besides outgo astir 3 times what Hatch expected successful 2022, according to interior projections from N.L. Hydro. The Crown corp expects to wage astir $440 cardinal for substance implicit the period, according to a March 7 missive to the PUB.

Province's 2nd largest concern polluter 

Keeping Holyrood online for longer than expected besides means continuing to pain dense substance astatine the facility.

While accumulation has decreased astatine Holyrood successful caller years, arsenic the Labrador-Island Link came online and its show improved, the works was inactive the province's 2nd biggest concern polluter successful 2023, producing 600,000 tonnes of greenhouse state emissions. 

Holyrood's yearly contamination amounts to astir 130,000 times the yearly emissions of the mean vehicle, according to Natural Resources Canada.

Pitcher stressed connected Monday that "contingency readying is simply a prudent and indispensable inferior practice, peculiarly during this clip of planetary uncertainty."

"Hydro has kept Holyrood successful work to guarantee reliable cognition for customers," she wrote. "Since commissioning of the Labrador-Island Link, Hydro has reduced cognition astatine Holyrood, keeping 2 of its 3 units successful work during the wintertime season. We volition proceed to thoughtfully negociate our strategy to minimize the usage of Holyrood until caller sources of proviso person been integrated into our system."

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