On June 17, Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro released its Annual Report 2023, which highlights the utility’s outcomes in 2023 and outlines its path forward to meet increasing demand, maintain reliability and replace retiring assets, among other issues.

Select highlights from 2023:

2023 marked several significant accomplishments for NL Hydro, including the commissioning of the Labrador Island Link, which delivers power from the Muskrat Falls Hydroelectric Generating Facility to the island. The Link performed well; an equivalent availability of 96%. Muskrat Falls production also exceeded expectations with 97.5% availability.

The utility was profitable in 2023, posting a net income of $619 million. However, in May 2024, the provincial government finalized a rate mitigation strategy with NL Hydro for the Muskrat Falls project.

NL Hydro exported more than 4 TWh of excess energy to external markets (nearly half the amount the province uses annually). This contributed $94 million in gross export sales and $5 million in Renewable Energy Credits.

Customers on the Island’s Interconnected System experienced the lowest service interruptions in the last 12 years (an average of 2.33 hours).

Through the utility’s takeCHARGE program, residential and commercial customers in the province achieved 1,810 MWh of energy savings in 2023, exceeding the annual target.

Plans for 2024 and beyond:

In 2023, 92% of the electricity generated by Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro was renewable. However, the utility must add new generation sources over the next 10 years to replace retiring fossil assets (such as the Holyrood) and to meet growing electricity demand.

Over the next decade, NL Hydro expects approximately 590 MW of generation assets to come offline; largely from replacing retiring fossil fuel-fired generators.

In 2023, the utility submitted several studies to the Newfoundland and Labrador Public Utilities Board to study potential supply options from its ongoing Reliability and Resource Adequacy (RRA) Study.

The utility recently announced it is planning to pursue three near-term options including:

  • an additional hydroelectric generating unit at our Bay d’Espoir plant (150 MW);
  • a new combustion turbine capable of using renewable fuels installed on the Avalon Peninsula (150 MW); and,
  • plans to purchase 80 megawatts of wind power.

The first two projects are expected to come online by 2034, at a cost of an estimated $1 billion.

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