As software struggles persist, consultant says Muskrat Falls completion impossible to predict
CBC
In one of its most scathing reviews to date, a consulting company monitoring progress on Muskrat Falls says it's now impossible to pinpoint a completion date for the troubled hydroelectric project.
In its latest quarterly report to Newfoundland and Labrador's Public Utilities Board, Liberty Consulting took aim at efforts to develop the power and control software for the Labrador-Island Link (LIL), which has suffered repeated setbacks and has been plagued by flaws.
The software is critical for the safe and efficient operation of the 1,100-kilometre line from Labrador to the Avalon Peninsula, which is capable of transmitting up to 900 megawatts of energy over two separate lines, or poles.
But the contractor, GE, has missed repeated deadlines for the software, and each new version exposes more and more glitches.
As such, the report's authors say "no reasonable projection of LIL commercial operation at full capability can have substantial credibility."
The report says it may take another year, "and perhaps significantly longer," to complete the project, and that N.L. Hydro must now prepare for "yet another coming winter season without a reliably performing LIL."
"Right now, the software will not support operation at any power level in a manner that system operators can consider dependable," Liberty reports.
In its March 3 monthly update to the PUB, N.L. Hydro expressed similar concern, writing that trial operations are behind schedule.
"It is not possible to predict the extent of any possible delay at this point in time," reads the update.
It's yet another gloomy portrait of a project that is years behind schedule, billions over budget, and was the subject of a public inquiry that labelled Muskrat a misguided project and resulted in the dismantling of Crown-owned Nalcor Energy.
The project has ballooned to $13.1 billion, nearly $6 billion higher than the original 2012 estimate, and there have been hints that figure will increase as the delays continue.
Liberty Consulting is a U.S.-based firm that's been hired to monitor progress on the project, and its integration in the province's electrical system.
Following recent meetings with N.L. Hydro officials, Liberty said it had "great concern about the methods being employed to surmount very long-standing issues with LIL software."
Liberty said it's taking an "extraordinarily long" time to perfect the software and that pressing trial versions of the software into service on the link, instead of using simulations, is not normal.
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