Primary Country (Mandatory)

United States

Other Country (Optional)

Set News Language for United States

Primary Language (Mandatory)
English
Other Language[s] (Optional)
No other language available

Set News Language for World

Primary Language (Mandatory)
English
Other Language(s) (Optional)

Set News Source for United States

Primary Source (Mandatory)
CNN
Other Source[s] (Optional)

Set News Source for World

Primary Source (Mandatory)
AajTak
Other Source(s) (Optional)
  • Countries
    • India
    • United States
    • Qatar
    • Germany
    • China
    • Canada
    • World
  • Categories
    • National
    • International
    • Business
    • Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Special
    • All Categories
  • Available Languages for United States
    • English
  • All Languages
    • English
    • Hindi
    • Arabic
    • German
    • Chinese
    • French
  • Sources
    • India
      • AajTak
      • NDTV India
      • The Hindu
      • India Today
      • Zee News
      • NDTV
      • BBC
      • The Wire
      • News18
      • News 24
      • The Quint
      • ABP News
      • Zee News
      • News 24
    • United States
      • CNN
      • Fox News
      • Al Jazeera
      • CBSN
      • NY Post
      • Voice of America
      • The New York Times
      • HuffPost
      • ABC News
      • Newsy
    • Qatar
      • Al Jazeera
      • Al Arab
      • The Peninsula
      • Gulf Times
      • Al Sharq
      • Qatar Tribune
      • Al Raya
      • Lusail
    • Germany
      • DW
      • ZDF
      • ProSieben
      • RTL
      • n-tv
      • Die Welt
      • Süddeutsche Zeitung
      • Frankfurter Rundschau
    • China
      • China Daily
      • BBC
      • The New York Times
      • Voice of America
      • Beijing Daily
      • The Epoch Times
      • Ta Kung Pao
      • Xinmin Evening News
    • Canada
      • CBC
      • Radio-Canada
      • CTV
      • TVA Nouvelles
      • Le Journal de Montréal
      • Global News
      • BNN Bloomberg
      • Métro
MoreBack to News Headlines
Muskrat Falls lines failed 6 times since January

Muskrat Falls lines failed 6 times since January

CBC
Wednesday, April 9, 2025 2:37 PM GMT

The Muskrat Falls transmission lines failed six times during the first quarter of 2025, although Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro says the problems had no impact on electricity customers.

The problems took on average nine hours to repair, according to the Crown utility, which is still unable to shut down the heavy oil-burning Holyrood Thermal Generating Station because of ongoing concerns about the reliability of Muskrat Falls power.

N.L. Hydro revealed the outages on the Labrador-Island Link (LIL), the vast 1,100km transmission system linking the Muskrat Falls dam to eastern Newfoundland, in a three-page letter sent to the Public Utilities Board (PUB) last Thursday.

According to the document, the LIL, a system carrying electricity over two independent lines or "poles," was completely offline during only two of the six incidents.

During the other four incidents, one of the two poles was still online and able to continue carrying Muskrat Falls electricity toward the Soldier's Pond substation outside St. John's. 

N.L. Hydro spokesperson Jill Pitcher said in an email that problems with weather and "control system component issues" caused the lines to trip three times in January, once in February and twice in March.

"Trips are experienced on all transmission lines," she said. "Transmission lines are designed to trip in response to a variety of system and/or weather conditions. The trips specific to the Labrador-Island Link in Q1 did not interrupt or impact our ability to supply our customers with electricity."

Since coming into service, the Muskrat Falls lines have experienced a series of problems, notably related to ice and high winds. Repairs have sometimes taken weeks, as some towers are located in isolated areas and difficult to access depending on the time of year.

N.L. Hydro has, however, repeatedly emphasized in recent months that the Muskrat Falls lines are becoming increasingly reliable and that new assets will always experience problems in the first years after commissioning.

In 2023, the utility announced a four-year program of repairs and upgrades to the LIL, pegged at $28 million. It said thousands of pieces of equipment had to be replaced or installed, including 1,308 turnbuckles used to regulate voltage and cable length.

The 824-megawatt dam is not currently operating at full capacity, as one of its four generating units needs to be completely dismantled, given a hydrogen embrittlement issue.

Unit 2 will be out of service until May, according to separate correspondence with the PUB.

The Holyrood Thermal Generating Station, the second largest industrial polluter in Newfoundland and Labrador, should have closed after the commissioning of the Muskrat Falls project, but will remain open until the beginning of the next decade, given continuing doubts about the reliability of the LIL.

N.L. Hydro promises to close the plant in the early 2030s, when it will have built a new combustion turbine at Holyrood and an eighth generating unit at the existing Bay d'Espoir dam. Those projects are expected to cost just shy of $2 billion, according to the Crown utility.

Read full story on CBC
Share this story on:-
Run 3 Space | Play Space Running GamePlay Run 3, the ultimate space tunnel running game with 300+ challenging levels!Adv.
Traffic Jam 3D | Online Racing GameTraffic Jam 3D is a game where you’ll be driving through heavy traffic.Adv.
Duck Hunt | Play Old Classic GamePlay the classic 1984 light gun shooter game Duck Hunt on your browser.Adv.
More Related News
Police continue to investigate Sunday night collision near E.C. Row at Dougall Avenue

An area around the E.C. Row on Dougall Avenue remains closed following a Sunday night collision that involved what appears to be a motorcycle.

Canada opens the door to deeper European defence and security partnership

Canada and Europe will be drawn a little closer together on Monday as Prime Minister Mark Carney signs a strategic defence and security partnership with the European Union.

She waited 12 hours for Toronto police's non-emergency line. Then, she was disconnected

Rachel Carr started losing hope after she hit the five-hour mark on hold with Toronto police's non-emergency line, but couldn't bring herself to hang up since she'd already waited for so long.

'School is a gift,' says Nunavut elder graduating at age 65

Aaju Peter says it's never too late to go back to school. 

Ontario needs to build more than 2 million homes in the next decade: internal docs

Ontario's target of building 1.5 million homes by 2031 may not be enough to meet demand, civil servants have told the province's new municipal affairs minister, saying that 2.1 million homes could instead be needed to improve affordability.

As airstrikes intensify, Iranians are flocking to the borders

Sandwiched between the barren mountains straddling the nearly 600-kilometre-long border between Iran and Turkey, families pull suitcases and push strollers through a heavily secured gate toward waiting taxis and vans.

Newfoundland's trains are long gone, but they're still chugging along the tracks in Chile

While the trains that once zipped along Newfoundland's rail tracks have been gone for decades, they have not been forgotten.

Members of Iranian, Jewish communities in Manitoba react to escalating conflict after U.S. attacks on Iran

A day after the U.S. bombed three nuclear sites in Iran, one Iranian Canadian group came out in condemnation of the attacks as an escalation of hostilities, while a community organizer viewed the strikes as a pathway to regime change in Iran.

After the firestorm: Loss and hope in Saskatchewan's scorched north

It was a beautiful day when we hit the road, heading north toward La Ronge. The skies were mostly clear, the air no longer smelling of smoke. It was the kind of day that made it hard to imagine the chaos that had unfolded just weeks before.

Some evacuees heading home as forest fire on Eastern Shore slows

A forest fire is still burning on Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore, but the union representing Halifax firefighters says they've made headway as rain continues to fall in the area.

1 dead, 1 injured in stabbing at homeless shelter in Toronto, 1 in custody

A man has died in hospital and another man was injured after being stabbed inside a North York shelter Sunday afternoon, Toronto police say.

Canadian ambassador says there's a 'good path forward' to a trade deal with the U.S.

Canada's ambassador to the United States, Kirsten Hillman said she "firmly" believes that both countries could reach a trade deal within the 30-day deadline discussed at the G7 summit in Alberta last week.

DiverCity Festival kicks off busy summer with event in Charlottetown

The DiverCity Festival kicked off a busy summer with an event at Charlottetown waterfront on Sunday.

Parking Slot | Free Parking GamePlay Parking Slot, the best online 3D car driving and parking game.Adv.
Slope Ball Run - Play OnlineSlope Game takes you on an exciting journey of a ball on special paths.Adv.
Woman sexually assaulted and attacked at gunpoint, police searching for man in his 30s

London police are searching for a man after a woman was attacked and sexually assaulted at gunpoint before escaping and running to a nearby home for help. 

Iran says its Fordow nuclear facility has been struck again

Iran's underground enrichment site at Fordow was hit again Monday while Iran fired a salvo of missiles and drones at Israel and warned the United States that its military now has a "free hand" to attack American targets in the wake of the Trump administration's massive strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.

Firefighters battling 2 blazes in St. John's area

More than a dozen firefighters are in the east end of St. John's, fighting a fire that broke out in a home on Monday morning.

Storm downs trees, knocks out power in Mattawa, Ont., area

On Saturday night, Bill Steer was relaxing in his cabin at the Canadian Ecology Centre, near Mattawa, Ont., when he felt something was off. The winds picked up and he started to hear branches falling. He said he grabbed his phone and got down.

Forest fire on Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore did not grow overnight: Natural Resources

Firefighters are back on the scene of a forest fire burning on Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore this morning, as some homes in the area remain evacuated. 

A Fredericton man was perplexed by his high power bills. He was paying the wrong bill

Bob Gibson couldn't figure out why his power bill was so large. He had his heat pump assessed and parts replaced–even installing a new thermostat. 

Site of deadly Manitoba bus crash was studied in 2006, but a major suggested improvement wasn't completed

With safety upgrade recommendations for the site of Manitoba's deadliest crash set to be announced this week, CBC has learned the province studied the intersection nearly 20 years ago and chose not to fix a significant highlighted issue because of the cost.

Sask. students and teachers continue to grapple with pronoun consent law as school year wraps

As the school year winds down in Saskatchewan, some students say they've had starkly different experiences since the province's pronoun consent law came into effect.

N.S.-P.E.I. ferry service reduced this week due to 'unusually low tides,' company says

Ferry service between Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia will operate on a reduced schedule this week due to "unusually low tides," Northumberland Ferries Ltd. said.

It's byelection day in three Alberta provincial electoral districts

Voters in three Alberta electoral districts will have a chance to cast a ballot in byelections today.

40 years after Air India bombing, son's grief fuels his work in counterterrorism and victim support

Susheel Gupta was 12 years old when his mother, Ramwati Gupta, boarded Air India Flight 182.

Killing of Hamilton man Erixon Kabera raises questions about policing and oversight

The Special Investigations Unit's (SIU) decision not to charge two Hamilton police officers who killed Erixon Kabera in November was not surprising to some experts, who are raising concerns over the police response and limits of the SIU's mandate.

© 2008 - 2025 Webjosh  |  News Archive  |  Privacy Policy  |  Contact Us