The Snare Falls hydro unit is back in full operation as of Wednesday, the NWT Power Corporation says, despite nobody knowing why it keeps triggering outages.
In a statement posted only to its Facebook page, the power corporation said bringing Snare Falls back to full speed was worth it because the risk of more outages is “offset by the lower cost of hydro generation and lower greenhouse gas emissions.”
Without Snare Falls at full operation, communities like Yellowknife need to burn more diesel to make up the difference.
“The unit has been operating at less than full capacity due to an unknown issue that has caused Snare Falls to trip under certain operating conditions. Over the past year and a half, some of these trips have caused partial or system-wide power outages,” the power corporation stated. (Yellowknife’s epic April power outage is not, though, understood to have been caused by Snare Falls.)
The power corporation said it had installed “specialized monitoring instrumentation” to try to trace the cause if Snare Falls trips offline again.
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Yellowknifers may recall a planned power outage was supposed to take place on May 15. That outage was an attempt to trip Snare Falls offline to better understand the issue, NTPC said this week, but it was “unsuccessful.”
Ultimately, residents might wish to be prepared for the occasional outage.
“The possibility of a trip still exists. If the unit trips when returned to full operation, NTPC will be able to collect data that will assist in identifying its root cause,” the power corporation stated.
“Once the required information has been collected, the unit would be returned to service at a reduced capacity to support reliability of the North Slave electricity system until the root cause issue is resolved. Work would be scheduled during the annual maintenance shutdown this summer.
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“NTPC is committed to providing reliable and affordable power to customers. This requires a careful evaluation of risks and benefits to ensure that the proper balance is achieved when dealing with challenging issues.”
New strategy on the way
Meanwhile, two NWT ministers promised on Wednesday a joint energy and climate change strategy that will address reliability of power generation in the territory, among other issues.
Jay Macdonald and Caroline Wawzonek said a joint strategy will arrive in 2026.
“Our power infrastructure is ageing and increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change,” Wawzonek told the legislature.
“Overhauling our power generation assets, upgrading our electricity grid and continuing to invest in local clean energy solutions across the territory are key steps we are taking to ensure our energy system can serve northerners for generations.
“This will include refurbishing of key hydro assets in the North Slave as well as the development of an approach to modernize our grid and support the integration of renewable energy in remote communities.”
Macdonald said the new strategy will more broadly move the GNWT “to a joint approach that brings together climate change and energy strategies, with the aim of taking more efficient, coherent, and impactful actions across government.”
Exactly what that will mean in practice is not yet clear. Up till now, the territory has had an energy strategy and a climate change “strategic framework.”
