The CEO of Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro says it will be sometime in 2024 before the full impact of Muskrat Falls on ratepayers will be felt.

Jennifer Williams announced yesterday that, following testing of the Labrador Island Link, Muskrat Falls is now considered commissioned.

She says there’s still some paperwork that needs to be completed with the federal government. Following that process an official commissioning date will be announced.

Williams says an update on the final total cost of Muskrat falls will be provided once that final commissioning date is set. The last update indicated that costs were up around $12.7 billion.

She says they are still in the process of finalizing the rate mitigation plan with the federal government, however the full extent of how much costs will increase won’t be known until next year.

She says there is a standard rate adjustment process that happens every July first, and that will still be going ahead. But, the adjusted rates for Muskrat Falls cannot be filed for until next year.

The reasoning for that, according to Williams, is because the process for filing for those increases is very extensive and takes several months to complete. Thus, they do not have time to file for those with Muskrat and rate mitigation factored in before July.