NB Power forced to downgrade Point Lepreau's performance targets

Ongoing production problems at the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station is forcing NB Power to plan for more outages and downtime at the plant over the next four years and has also led the utility to further downgrade the refurbished reactor's expected lifetime performance.

"It is a concern." said Heather Black, the public intervener, about the reactor's continuing performance issues.

"It has significant consequences for NB Power and for its ratepayers."

Point Lepreau has encountered far more problems than NB Power predicted it would since coming back online in late 2012 following a four-and-a-half year refurbishment that cost $2.4 billion.

• Point Lepreau to be shut down for maintenance for 7 weeks
• Earthquake study sparks Point Lepreau safety reassessment
• Point Lepreau shut down again for repairs that could cost $10.5M

Last year, the nuclear reactor was offline for the equivalent of 79 days to deal with a variety of problems, well above the 11 days NB Power originally budgeted.

Earlier this year, a spring maintenance outage planned to last between 42 and 57 days stretched into a 72-day shutdown instead as problems proved to be more complex than expected.

Since the refurbishment, Point Lepreau has been shutdown for planned and unplanned maintenance and repairs for a combined 351 days. That's 190 days more than NB Power laid out in planning documents submitted to the Energy and Utilities Board in 2013

NB Power has long estimated that every unplanned day of lost production at Point Lepreau costs the utility about $1 million.

A large part of the problem has been the breakdown of unrefurbished equipment in the non-nuclear part of the power plant.

In a new report delivered to the Energy and Utilities Board late last month, NB Power says it will be adding 55 extra outage days over the next four years to further deal with those issues.

'Aggressive preventative maintenance'

The utility says most of the extra downtime will be centred on "aggressive preventative maintenance" to try and reduce future breakdowns.

"The concentrated focus on preventative maintenance has proven to be effective throughout industry in achieving better equipment reliability results," said Deborah Nobes, NB Power spokeswoman, in an email to CBC News

But increased downtime for maintenance at the reactor also means higher costs and less production, further impeding the plant's ability to reach its long-term performance and financial targets.

In 2013, NB Power convinced the Energy and Utilities Board that Point Lepreau could safely be paid for over a 27-year period because a rigorous six-month-long projection exercise carried out inside the utility showed a rebuilt Point Lepreau could produce power that long, operating at an average plant capacity of 89 per cent.

But during its first four years, NB Power's nuclear reactor has gotten nowhere near that level, operating well below 80 per cent capacity.

NB Power has responded by quietly lowering its 27-year production target to 87 per cent, but critics charge that is still too optimistic.

Complicated problems

Green Party Leader David Coon said Point Lepreau's age makes him doubt much can be done about its performance problems.

"It's an old power plant so it's going to continue having these problems," said Coon.

"Like any old vehicle or old home or older person, when you find a problem it is often more complicated when you dig into it."

The public intervener said given Point Lepreau's post-refurbishment performance so far and the need for enhanced maintenance in the years to come it might make sense for the Energy and Utilities Board to re-evaluate the viability of the reactor's long-term production targets.

"Those forecasts are very important not only in the short term but over a period of years as well," Black said.

"It's a big factor in their budgeting process and to the extent those forecasts and budget numbers are inaccurate it has an immediate effect on how much it costs to produce power and how much we all have to pay for it."