It’s always “Half an hour later, in Newfoundland.”

Actually, in Canada, the equivalent role is generally not filled by an indigenous person. Why? Because it wouldn’t be fair to have a First Nations person negotiate against their own people on behalf of the crown. It would put them an untenable conflict of interest.

The power factor is relatively close to unity for the exciter. The actual excitation current is around 90A DC at 50V or so, though it varies.

Anyhow, the plant itself powers a remote wilderness community that's a good 50km from the nearest power pole. It's maintained largely by volunteers, and is a replacement for diesel power. The landed cost for diesel power right now would be on the order of $2.50/L for the fuel, nevermind the environmental costs. The feedwater for the hydro plant is run of the river type system, taken from a small creek that flows over a large waterfall (meaning no fish concerns).

For reference, most commercial scale power plants, regardless of energy source, use about 5-10% of their output to operate the plant itself. In Nuclear plants, this includes the energy required to operate the cooling and safety systems. This also includes the excitation energy required to operate the generators. I work with a small hydroelectric power plant (about 250kVA), and the exciter uses about 15kVA to make it operate when at full power.