The Northwest Territories Power Corporation says the 20-minute city-wide outage in Yellowknife on February 2nd was due to the Snare Rapids Hydro Unit automatically shutting down.
The unit has been offline since around 7:45 p.m. on Tuesday when NTPC’s control centre received several alarms indicating that the generator was having problems.
Diesel generation at the Jackfish Generating Plant has offset the loss of eight megawatts of generation from the electricity system.
NTPC staff have been troubleshooting since the shutdown to determine the extent of the problem and identify the work necessary to get the unit back up and running.
NTPC President and CEO Noel Voykin says aging infrastructure continues to make it a challenge to maintain reliable electricity service to customers.
“COVID has created additional obstacles to completing maintenance activities that are required to keep our key assets operating well,” he adds.
Voykin adds if additional staff or contractors from outside the NWT are required to repair the unit, they will work with ProtectNWT to ensure all protocols related to worker safety are followed.
The timetable for returning Snare Rapids to service is unknown at this time.
