Nalcor says final completion of the Muskrat Falls project has been pushed back another year, to September of 2021 due to software delays and the impact of COVID-19.
Nalcor CEO Stan Marshall says project costs have also increased to $13.1 billion dollars, (up from $12.7 billion back in June) with most of the costs and delays directly related to COVID-19.
Meanwhile, aside from software delays, some software problems were also encountered.
He says they did get software from GE a month ago, which led to another problem – coating on the fiberglass brackets supporting the equipment caused shorts which means the brackets will also have to be replaced.
Marshall says GE is on the hook for that cost. In the meantime, rate increases won’t kick in until the project is finished. Right now, that cost is expected to be 23.1 cents per kilowatt-hour, about the same as that projected in 2017.
Government rate mitigation efforts continue.
