When unplanned power cuts occur, there may be an increase in frustration. When they continue to happen again and again, the toll can become more significant.
Mark Henry, president of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, says that the business community in the city has felt the impact this year, since the income lost in the maximum business hours to the fried team.
“Literally, [equipment] He will burn inside and no longer works, “he said. He says he has seen it happen in his restaurant.” It happens enough so that when the power goes out, it is the first thought I have. “
Henry says he has heard other local residents say that they feel that there has been an increase in interruptions.
They are not wrong.
The Northern Territories Power Corporation (NTPC) has registered a 30 percent increase in energy courts in the territory so far this year, largely due to interruptions in the north and south slaves regions.
There have been 91 interruptions this year so far. In the last five years, the average has been 66 per year.
“There has been a notable increase this year,” said Belinda Whitford, director of Operations of NTPC.
Most interruptions can be attributed to mechanical problems in the hydroelectricity plants of Snare Falls and Taltson.
Snare’s fault unit began to stumble this winter for reasons that remained unknown until June, after an attempt of a planned interruption to identify the cause in May did not work.
Since then, NTPC has identified the problem and has ordered the necessary pieces for repair. Whitford said they would be installed during a planned unit closure, most likely at the end of August or early September.
The TALTSON unit is currently out of operation for a planned annual closure. The plant was out for two years before returning to the service at the end of March this year. At that time, some works linked to the review of the plant were not over.
While the Taltson plant has been at the close, there have been several long cuts in the Hay river area.
When the energy left for long hours on July 30 and August 1, a large number of foods bought before the Kátł’odeeche First Nation Hand Tournament had to be expelled.
Shanon Pekok, coordinator of the event, said she estimated that approximately $ 5,000 in food was lost, although it could have been more. There was no support supply source for refrigerators where meat was stored.
The event usually feeds about 300 participants from the thousands of attendees every year. Pekok said they had to go and replace the spoiled food.
The interruption also coincided with a heat wave in the area. Pekok said interruptions like that, which continue for several hours, can hit hard.
“It affects the community, especially the elderly,” he said. “If it happens during the day, it is more difficult for people.”
Belinda Whitford of NTPC said the heat waves reached the region just when it went to the diesel power due to the closure of Taltson.
“That exacerbated problems,” he said. “At one point we had four units of generation out of service, but the burden of the community was really high, since people are trying to light the air conditioners, light fans.”
NTPC inherited Naka Power Utilities diesel generators when it took over the facilities earlier this year. NTPC checked the largest of the units there just before the closure of Taltson.
Whitford said the unit would have needed more time to run again and test. A water pump failure caused the unit to fail, which worsened the interruption for the entire community, since it had the largest load.
The second largest unit also failed on July 30. From last week, Whitford said NTPC was still working to fix it.
The Hay River area was scheduled to return to hydroelectric energy as its main source of electricity when the Taltson plant should be again in line in mid -August. However, a corrosion problem with the overtling tank identified during closing has delayed Taltson’s return to the activity.
“The duration of the delay is not known at this time, but NTPC acknowledges that it is possible that a great remediation work in the 60 -year increase tank is required,” the company said in a statement published online on Friday.
The statement says that NTPC knew about corrosion problems for years, but a recent inspection found that “it can be worse than expected.” The corrective work in the over -overd tank was not part of the two -year review project for the plant.
CBC News contacted NTPC to ask when the Taltson plant is expected to return to the operation.
Before the issuance of increased tanks was made public, Whitford said that aging infrastructure has been one of NTPC’s biggest challenges. He also said that the costs of dealing with that “the rates are incorporated.”
The Corporation has asked the Public Services Board to increase rates. The Board will have the last word on how the increase is seen.
Meanwhile, although more interruptions mean a greater dependence on the diesel, Whitford said their cost would not be assumed by NTPC customers.
“They will not see an impact on their invoices as a result of these interruptions,” he said.
