This summer’s drought is having far-reaching impacts, well beyond municipal water supplies and food production – it’s also affecting the distribution of hydro power to the island, and was a contributing factor in two recent power outages.

This summer’s drought, and low precipitation, means that water levels in Hydro’s reservoirs are down – forcing the company to reduce power generation at its facilities on the island, at least temporarily.

As a result, Hydro increased power over the Labrador-Island Link to avoid having to rely on thermal generation at Holyrood.

That increase in power over the last few weeks has coincided with regular maintenance on the LIL. One pole is currently offline for planned maintenance. That means more load is being carried on one pole, while the other one is not available to provide backup in case of a trip.

While operating in that way has allowed Hydro to “save a significant amount” in the cost of fuel at Holyrood, and reduces the need for future rate increases to make up the difference, it also increases the risk of brief outages like the ones experienced across the island in recent weeks – most recently Tuesday night. Power was fully restored within 15 minutes

When the power trips, the system sheds power load, causing outages.

NL Hydro says since the start of the LIL’s maintenance period in late September, the amount of incremental power delivered over the LIL equals about $2.8 million in fuel savings at Holyrood.

The cause of Tuesday night’s trip is under investigation.