A hydro refit that was supposed to be a six-month operation will now take at least a year longer than originally planned, the NWT Power Corporation says.
The work will also cost some $30 million more than initially budgeted, and is now almost a $100-million project.
South Slave communities like Hay River and Fort Smith have been running on diesel since the Taltson hydro plant, the territory’s most powerful, was taken offline in May 2023.
The plan was to refurbish the nearly 60-year-old plant and return it to service by the end of the year.
Instead, Taltson is still shut down and will now stay that way until January 2025 at the earliest, NTPC said in a news release on Wednesday.
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The power corporation said an initial delay when the site was evacuated over wildfires in the summer of 2023 was followed by identification of a “significant alignment issue within the unit.”
According to NTPC, engineers and hydro experts “have been working to resolve the issue over the past several months but have been unsuccessful.”
The plant can’t operate “until the unit can be disassembled to allow for the proper realignment of key components,” which is expected to take five more months, the power corporation said.
In the meantime, the communities of Fort Smith, Fort Resolution, Hay River, Enterprise and Kátł’odeeche First Nation will stay on diesel.
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Having originally been estimated to cost around $70 million, the refurbishment of Taltson – including the extra diesel cost – is now estimated at $97 million.
NTPC is expected to try to recover some of the extra cost through its customers when it next asks regulator the Public Utilities Board for a rate increase, a request expected at the end of this year.
“Full cost recovery will be spread over time so that customers today are not expected to pay all the costs for a project that will support reliable power supply for many decades,” the power corporation stated.
“While we recognize that project delays have been frustrating for customers as well as everyone working on the project, we are committed to completing the Taltson overhaul so that South Slave communities can continue to be powered by clean hydro for the next 50-60 years,” NTPC president Cory Strang was quoted as saying.
