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!
