Ontario is the latest customer to line up to purchase Newfoundland and Labrador’s growing supply of hydroelectricity in a move that could one day lead to a “national grid.”
The two provincial energy ministers will announce Monday they’re launching a study of the potential for Ontario to buy power from the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric plant and the pending Gull Island development at Lower Churchill Falls, the National Post has learned. But power won’t start flowing west from Newfoundland for years to come as both projects and associated transmission lines are still years away from coming online.
Though negotiations are in the early stages, Ontario energy minister Bob Chiarelli said the move is “very significant to (the development of) a Canada-wide grid, to be able to get (power) from Newfoundland to Ontario. That’s a pretty big chunk of the country.”
The move comes less than a week after Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne toured the Muskrat Falls construction site in advance of the annual meeting of the premiers at Council of Federation in St. John’s. She expressed interested in the value of the project for Ontario, which is increasingly looking outside its borders for cheap power.
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‘These are first steps towards creating a national grid': Ontario in talks to buy power from Newfoundland | National Post
