Newfoundland Power hosted a sit-down to brief media on its short and long-term initiatives yesterday.

But the conversation quickly turned to the immediate future, as in this winter, and the reliability of power.

More than 90 per cent of Newfoundland Power’s generation is purchased from Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro.

That puts them mostly at the whim of Hydro’s assets, such as Muskrat Falls and the troubled Labrador Island Link, as well as the diesel-fired Holyrood Generating Station.

Newfoundland Power CEO Gary Murray said they’ll get an update soon from Hydro on recent repairs to the Link, or LIL.

But he said there are still questions about the future reliability of Muskrat Falls.

Not to mention the importance of keeping Holyrood up to snuff.

“Ya know, if the LIL fails, Holyrood is working, then we should be fine,” he said. “And I would say that’s the key factor for this winter as it was for last winter, was the availability of Holyrood to be there as a backstop.”

Newfoundland Power customers pay an average, all-in rate of 15.2 cents per kilowatt hour, which the company says is the lowest in Atlantic Canada.