The NWT Power Corporation says there’ll be a fresh delay switching the South Slave back to hydro power after a year on diesel.
Refurbishment of the 60-year-old Taltson hydro facility north of Fort Smith – work described as urgent by the power corporation – began in May last year and was supposed to be wrapped up by November, but has taken twice the time originally estimated.
That means the communities of Hay River, the Kátł’odeeche First Nation, Fort Smith, Fort Resolution and Enterprise have been burning millions of dollars of extra diesel.
“Commissioning of the refurbished Taltson hydro unit is taking longer to complete than expected,” the power corporation said earlier this month, citing a direct hit from a wildfire last August and technical problems uncovered at the start of 2024.
On Tuesday, the power corporation said on Facebook a fresh technical issue means plans to switch Fort Smith and Hay River back to hydro power are being further delayed.
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The precise concern wasn’t specified.
“Once the root cause of the issue has been identified and resolved, a new commissioning schedule will be developed,” the corporation wrote.
Fort Smith and Hay River had been due to experience power outages in the coming days while the power corporation made the switch. Those planned outages now won’t take place for the time being.
