Reliability is the ability of our generation, transmission and distribution systems to continuously deliver electricity without failure or interruption to our customers.

Hydro manages Newfoundland and Labrador’s electricity system, generating and transmitting the vast majority of electricity used in our province every single day. We directly deliver electricity to customers in approximately 200 rural Newfoundland communities, to all of Labrador, and supply electricity to Newfoundland Power.

We understand that a dependable source of electricity is essential to everyday life, from turning on the lights to powering industry.

To measure our reliability, we use Electricity Canada metrics and benchmarking. We measure things like outage frequency and outage duration, as well availability and outage rates of our generation assets. Every utility across Canada uses these same metrics, but every utility also faces different challenges. On a regular basis, our system withstands weather events that many national utilities rarely see. While others may see system distribution issues during an occasional storm with 60 km winds, areas of our system can be in 60-80 km/h winds for weeks on end.

With 60 transmission delivery points across our province – the point where the energy from our transmission system is transferred to a distribution system – there are strict transmission reliability and distribution reliability metrics that we adhere to.

Setting our targets

We set annual targets and keep internal teams – such as Engineering Services, Long Term Asset Planning, Operations, Resource and Production Planning and more – updated on the status of these targets. Our Asset Management and Reliability team also regularly reports this information to the Public Utilities Board. This data is critical as it helps provide valuable insight into our day to day operations and guides how we plan for the future.

Our goal is always to find the appropriate balance between cost and reliability for our customers. Our teams strive to find this balance and significant work goes on behind the scenes and on the front lines to meet these targets.

Over the past few years Hydro has been completing more live line work – where maintenance work can be completed safely, without any impact to our customers. Teams are also bundling up work where possible – with multiple line crews traveling to an area to safely complete work as quickly as possible. And, when outages do occur, our maintenance teams are dedicated to safe and efficient restoration times, often working through very tough weather conditions and in geographically challenging areas.

Improving reliability for our customers

There are many examples of how our teams are working collaboratively to improve reliability for our customers across the province:

• Live line work was performed at the Wabush Terminal Station on June 8, eliminating the need for the annual Labrador West customer outage in the spring.

• During the second week of June, Powerline Technicians from across the island completed upgrades to the Change Islands distribution system. Over 30 maintenance staff carried out the required work within the planned schedule to minimize customer impact.

• During the first week of July, maintenance crews from across the island worked on Fogo Island to upgrade the main distribution line. Mobile back-up generation was also used to reduce impacts on customers during the busy tourist season.

• For the September 8 planned maintenance for Labrador West, our teams worked with Hydro Quebec to secure an alternative supply from Fermont – meaning the outage was reduced significantly for customers while our teams completed critical maintenance work.

• On September 12, terminal and line crews from across the island came together to complete planned maintenance work at the St. Anthony Airport, in Main Brook, and the Roddickton terminal stations. This approach minimized customer impact, and the St. Anthony diesel generators were also used to reduce impacts on the St. Anthony system.

Thanks to teams all across Hydro, these practices have helped us minimize outages to customers and improve our transmission and distribution reliability metrics over the past five years.