Holyrood generating station down to 1 working turbine as dead of winter approaches

There is more trouble at the aging Holyrood generating facility, with two of the three turbines now out of service and the only unit currently online not operating at full capacity.

But N.L. Hydro is stressing that there are "sufficient available generating reserves at this time and there are no current alerts."

As CBC/Radio-Canada reported last week, Unit 2 at the 490-megawatt Holyrood thermal generating station is offline for repairs until March.

In a statement on Sunday, N.L. Hydro officials confirmed that Unit 1 "was taken offline on Dec. 12 to conduct a repair that was required for safety reasons."

Work is required to fix the main steam control valves.

"Given the mild temperatures for the coming weeks, it was prudent to complete the repairs at this time," N.L.Hydro spokesperson Jill Pitcher said in an emailed statement.

"We are safely advancing work on Unit 1 for full return to service by the end of December, potentially earlier."

But that's not all there are also issues affecting Unit 3.

On Saturday evening, Hydro discovered a small boiler tube leak on that unit. Officials said Unit 3 is being monitored and remains online at 70 megawatts about half of its capacity.

Despite all of that, Hydro officials stressed that there is currently enough generating capacity.

"We have plenty of reserve on the system over the coming days, anywhere from 250 to 390 MW at peak times,"Pitcher wrote.

"Hydro plans to always have backup generation on the system in the form of reserve electricity generation in order to respond to situations like these."

Hydro noted that it has an operating and communication protocol in place to keep people informed of any "significant risks"on the system that may impact customers. There are no alerts right now.

Newfoundland Power, the island's main electricity distributor, recentlysounded the alarm over what it called an "elevated"risk that electricity demand could surpass supply this winter.

Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro CEO Jennifer Williams told CBC/Radio-Canada last week that she is confident about winter preparations.

"I feel comfortable that we are doing everything we can to have a reliable system,"Williams said at the time.

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