Every year, Hydro carries out its capital program to ensure we are effectively maintaining the province’s electricity system. All capital expenditures are reviewed by the Board of Commissioners of Public Utilities and intervenors before receiving regulatory approved. Hydro incorporates asset management principles and condition assessments to determine the work that’s required to provide safe, reliable, least-cost service to Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. And to refine our capital budget application, we maintain a critical review of the justification for each project, focused on controlling costs and the impact on customers’ rates, while maintaining reliability.

Hydro conducted a number of key projects in 2019, including important upgrades and refurbishments at the Bay d’Espoir hydroelectric plant and other generation facilities, at various terminal stations, transmission and distribution systems, and on diesel units that serve our province’s most remote communities. Work also began on a new transmission interconnection in eastern Labrador to improve reliability for Upper Lake Melville. Our 2020 capital budget application is currently before the Board.

Our capital expenditures have steadily decreased over the last three years, as the major project to construct a new transmission line between Bay d’Espoir and the Avalon Peninsula was completed, and as capital spending reductions and deferrals were implemented. As the producer of more than 80 per cent of the province’s electricity, Hydro has a responsibility to ensure the reliability of our electricity assets for today and for the future. At the same time, we understand the importance of investing responsibly, spending only where it is most required, so that we always strike the right balance between cost and reliability.