N.W.T. Power Corporation issued an announcement today that there will be a planned 30 minute outage tomorrow morning. N.W.T. Power Corp and Naka Power said the outage could potentially affect a combined total of 9,000 to 10,000 customers Yellowknife, Ndilǫ and Dettah.
The company said the outage will begin sometime between 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on tomorrow (May 14).
The company said they have already issued notices to customers, and the announcement was a reminder.
“This planned outage is being schedule during daytime hours allowing for testing when power demand is high,” said the company.
N.W.T. Power Corp said they will have additional power generation available to reduce the duration of the outage.
“The outage is related to work being done at our Snare Falls site to address a mechanical issue that has contributed to power outages in the past,” said N.W.T. Power Corp. in a social media post this morning.
Doug Prendergast, who is the communications manager at NWT’s Power Corp. told True North that the issue has to do with the hydro unit’s tendency to trip when operating during certain hours.
“The planned outage scheduled for the morning of May 15 in Yellowknife, N’dilo and Dettah is intended to identify why the Snare Falls hydro unit consistently trips when it is operating between six and seven megawatts. These trips have led to unplanned system outages in the past,” said Prendergast.
Prendergast explained that additional monitoring equipment will set up to help understand what is going on within the unit when it is operating within that range that results in a trip.
“The planned outage will last approximately 30 minutes and will include all parts of Yellowknife, N’dilo and Dettah,” he said.
