The Company filed an Intervener Submission to the PUB which is investigating Black-Out 2014. Its fifth question was loaded. It was brief; but it was a bomb-shell. It asked:
5. What measures are required to ensure
reliability and security of power supply to
customers on the Island
Interconnected System, including Newfoundland Power
and its customers, after
the Labrador in-feed and Maritime link become
operational? (Emphasis
added)
What had Newfoundland Power implied? It lacked faith in Nalcor’s power generation
strategy. It doubted its ability “to ensure reliability and security of power…”
after Muskrat Falls is completed.
The Company had broken ranks with Nalcor. It was a watershed moment. What may have been
imperceptible to many represented a seismic shift in the Newfoundland
centered universe, at least as far as Muskrat Falls is concerned.
Ian Kelly, Newfoundland Power’s Legal Counsel,
summed up the Company’s position this way:
“We want to make it clear Newfoundland Power is not questioning
the decisions to develop Muskrat Falls or to build the Maritime Link ... those
decisions have been made.
“What the board should examine is how reliability and security of
supply will be assured after the commissioning of Muskrat Falls and after the
decommissioning of Holyrood.”
Am I reading Ian Kelly’s words
accurately? What did he say, again? ”…those
decisions have been made”. In other
words, we at Newfoundland Power did not necessarily agree with them but you,
Nalcor, have sealed your own fate; those were your decisions!
It is well-known that Fortis Chairman and CEO Stan Marshall would not go near the Muskrat Falls Project ‘with a barge pole’.
It is well-known that Fortis Chairman and CEO Stan Marshall would not go near the Muskrat Falls Project ‘with a barge pole’.
Fortis might have wanted to make its views public
a long time ago; after all, most residents of the Island are Newfoundland Power
customers.
But, in a politically charged environment
like Newfoundland and Labrador’s, such frankness even if uttered in the public
interest would have earned the Company a corporate bloody nose from the more czarist
of Government politicians, especially Danny Williams and Kathy Dunderdale.
Fortis stayed mute; one of the few fully qualified
groups, boasting intellectual, technical and financial heft, didn't as much as
file a single word with the PUB on the Muskrat Falls Application. It was an enormous display of cowardice.
The power ‘black outs’ of early January shook
the political and commercial foundations of the Province. There was no good way to ‘spin’ it, though
for a short time the Premier and at least one VOCM Open Line Host tried to
claim all would be fine when Muskrat comes on stream. How could a group incapable of getting its
summer maintenance program completed by mid-winter retain a shred of
credibility for a Project enshrouded in secrecy?
The ‘black outs’ constituted a political and
commercial debacle; they shredded the tattered remains of the Dunderdale
Premiership and ruined a long record of confidence in the security and
reliability of our power system.
I drove across the City late on the night of
the explosion in Hydro’s Holyrood switching yard. A friend had asked me to help him retrieve
some Jerry cans. Fuel was in short supply for his generator.
I stopped, just for a moment or two, above
the Avalon Mall, on Thorburn Road. I was
able to see much of St. John’s and Mount Pearl in virtual darkness. The sense of isolation, of desperation, of
the entire Metro Region was palpable.
A chill ran down my spine as I pondered the
possibility that the outages might go on for many more weeks. How would people manage? What would such a massive
disruption do to our economy? The
questions were imprinted on the dark sky, on the blackened street lights, and in
the clouds of cold snow that blew like white dust over the windshield.
The Open Line Shows ran back-to-back; most
callers used the corporate names, Nalcor and Newfoundland Power, interchangeably. People made no effort to differentiate which corporate
entity was responsible for the mess. They
were frightened. They had a right to be.
But, I suspect, few were as frightened as the senior people at Fortis and Newfoundland Power.
___________________________________________________________________
Related Story: ON MUSKAT FALLS FORTIS FAILS TO LIVE UP TO ITS REPUTATION
___________________________________________________________________
Yes, they were only the ‘distributer’; the
company responsible for making sure that the ‘juice’ delivered to them by
Nalcor arrived at homes and businesses safely and without interruption. How could they be held responsible, if Nalcor
failed to manage the generation system? Who could argue with such a proposition?
But, would those arguments withstand scrutiny
if the Labrador Island Link (LIL) collapsed following a winter’s sleet storm in
2018, a mere four years from now? What about the myriad other reasons Muskrat could come up short?
Would Fortis be so easily let off the hook having failed to break its silence? Was it not a knowledgeable witness to the conception, design and construction of Muskrat Falls? Where would it find an ounce of credibility having deferred to people like Williams and Dunderdale, to secrecy and deception?
Would Fortis be so easily let off the hook having failed to break its silence? Was it not a knowledgeable witness to the conception, design and construction of Muskrat Falls? Where would it find an ounce of credibility having deferred to people like Williams and Dunderdale, to secrecy and deception?
In this light, one begins to see why Fortis
had no choice but break ranks with Nalcor.
No Corporation is insulated from its
community of interest; even in the real world of business, corporate
responsibility is not just about legal definitions or mere philosophical notions
of accountability. Sometimes the public
interest simply cannot be disentangled from corporate self-interest. This was
one of those moments.
Little wonder Fortis
executives had second thoughts.
Continued
silence would have constituted a relationship bordering on complicity.
Fortis had to
disassociate itself from Nalcor. Its
subsidiary, Newfoundland Power, could not survive another calamity like Black-Out
2014 (or worse). The Company had to find a way to off-load its burden. The PUB offered the perfect opportunity. If the Agency failed to take the cue, Fortis could always take credit for trying.
That proposition may be moot, but one thing is certain, the option of Fortis’ continued silence evaporated in those cold, dark nights of early January.
That proposition may be moot, but one thing is certain, the option of Fortis’ continued silence evaporated in those cold, dark nights of early January.
In contrast, Nalcor (the Crown Corporation
ostensibly owned by the people of the Province) and its subsidiary,
Newfoundland Hydro, do not see it that way.
Even against the back drop of power outages in which seniors were herded
into ‘warming’ centers, where residents with no secondary heat source suffered
personal discomfort, damage to water pipes and property, against business
closures and industrial shutdowns like Corner Brook Paper and the Come By
Chance Refinery, against all the expense and suffering, what did Nalcor say to
the PUB?
It demanded secrecy again, just as it has always counted on the former Premier and the current one to guarantee.
Lawyer, David MacDougall spoke to the PUB on
behalf of Nalcor’s Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro:
“With respect
to the fifth (issue) proposed by Newfoundland Power, regarding the potential
review of measures to ensure reliability after commissioning of Muskrat Falls
and the Labrador-Island Link, we believe that matter is beyond the
appropriate scope of this review”. (Emphasis added).
Meanwhile, Premier
Tom Marshall, having promised that his Administration will be different, maintained
his silence. The re-set button is as corroded as it ever
was.
A lax media
forgets to ask the new ‘Marshall’ if he still supports Nalcor’s style of governance; they fail to ask if
he will intervene, not with the PUB but with Ed Martin, to remind him that the
damage done to democratic government must end.
The media might
get around to that sometime.
Meanwhile, Fortis and Newfoundland
Power have had an epiphany.
Even the
Consumer Advocate gave his support to an enlarged investigation.
The PUB
deliberates.
Is this
progress?
I don’t know.
But, there
is more reason for hope.
