Toronto (November 26) For their bravery and innovation in the face of a catastrophic wildfire, the Churchill Falls team at Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro have been awarded Electricity Canada’s first-ever Extraordinary Service award.
Last June, a rapidly intensifying forest fire near Churchill Falls escalated from Category 4 to 6, prompting officials to issue an evacuation order for the town. Churchill Falls, home to 750 residents and one of the world’s largest underground hydroelectric generating stations, faced a dual crisis: ensuring residents' safety while maintaining critical power generation.
As the town evacuated, a dedicated crew stayed behind, prioritizing the province's power needs over their own safety. Over the following days, they worked tirelessly to keep the plant operational, ensuring uninterrupted electricity for customers locally and beyond. Their efforts included creating fire and bulldozer breaks to protect the town and infrastructure and preparing contingency plans to address risks like smoke impacting power lines or plant shutdowns.
When the fire jumped the Churchill River, a “last person standing” protocol was enacted, leaving the plant unattended for the first time in history. Despite this unprecedented situation, successful planning, innovative solutions, and remote monitoring ensured continuous power generation.
The Churchill Falls team’s extraordinary resilience and resourcefulness exemplified their commitment to safety, teamwork, and pushing operational limits under extreme conditions. In honour of this incredible achievement, Electricity Canada has created this new award.
The Extraordinary Service award was presented to executives, management and frontline workers from Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro at Electricity Canada’s Powering Partnerships summit, held in Toronto on November 26.
QUOTES
“Electricity Canada is proud to present its inaugural Extraordinary Service award to Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro’s team at Churchill Falls for their bravery and selflessness. Their work saved lives, but also demonstrated the reliability of the electricity system. They showed incredible courage, incredible innovation and thoughtful planning and execution. This team is the very best of us in the electricity sector.”
- Francis Bradley, President and CEO, Electricity Canada
“The team that effected this positive outcome (with significant help from others in the organization, our government colleagues and an incredibly supportive community around us) and what our employees had to do in every minute and every hour during the fire risk can only be done by people who truly care about what they do every day. They care about the provision of electricity; they care about those that we serve and they care about the assets that we manage and they care about each other. That's who these people are. That was proven for all to see this summer. We are grateful to Electricity Canada for this award. Their acknowledgement of the incredible people I work alongside truly means so much.”
- Jennifer Williams, President and CEO, Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro
About Electricity Canada:
Founded in 1891, Electricity Canada (formerly the Canadian Electricity Association) is the national forum and voice of the evolving and innovative electricity business in Canada. The Association supports, through its advocacy efforts, the regional, national, and international success of its members. Electricity Canada members generate, transmit, and distribute electrical energy to industrial, commercial, residential, and institutional customers across Canada. Members include integrated electric utilities, independent power producers, transmission and distribution companies, power marketers, and system operators, who together deliver electricity to all Canadians, in every province and territory.
For additional Information:
Graeme Burk
Director of Communications
burk@electricity.ca
613.809.0720