N.W.T. Power Corporation just issued an announcement that their planned 30 minute outage scheduled for this morning will potentially happen in the afternoon instead. N.W.T. Power Corp and Naka Power said the outage could potentially affect a combined total of 9,000 to 10,000 customers in Yellowknife, Ndilǫ and Dettah.
The announcement was made by N.W.T. Power Corp. this morning at about 11: 30 am on social media.
The company said the outage could begin sometime between 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on May 15.
By 4:00 pm this afternoon, there seemed to be no reports of outages.
Doug Prendergast, who is the communications manager at NWT’s Power Corp., told True North FM at 4 p.m. today that the unit did not “trip” as planned, which is why there was no outage today.
The testing aimed to examine why the hydro unit “has caused trips to the system when operating under certain conditions” over the last “number of months,” said Prendergast.
The company said these “trips” have led to unplanned outages on “several occasions.”
“Despite being successful in recreating those conditions, the unit did not trip for an unknown reason,” he said.
Prendergast said that a decision was made to go ahead with the work at Snare Falls this afternoon, “as the required staff and testing equipment were already in place. ”
This afternoon, the company said that although the planned outage scheduled for this morning did not occur, there was still the potential for a short outage this afternoon between 1:30 and 3:30 pm. as work on the Snare Falls hydro unit.
The company apologized for any inconvenience that may have been caused to customers.
Despite being successful in recreating those conditions, the unit did not trip for an unknown reason. This is why there was no outage.
Yesterday, the company issued a reminder to customers that work was being done on the Snare Line.
“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.
