The Taltson hydro plant will remain offline into the new year because repair work is taking longer than planned, keeping South Slave communities on diesel power.
In August, the NWT Power Corporation said it had to fix corrosion to a key part of the facility known as a surge tank. A month later, NTPC estimated that work would take until at least early December.
In an update emailed to Cabin Radio on Monday, the power corporation said the end was not in sight.
“Taltson Hydro remains out of service as remediation work on the surge tank is ongoing,” spokesperson Doug Prendergast stated.
“NTPC is working to confirm a new schedule for completion and expect to be able to provide an update in early January.”
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Asked what was responsible for the delay, Prendergast replied: “The work is taking longer than originally estimated – our update in January will provide more details.”
Taltson has existed for 60 years. Since the plant was shut down in May 2023 for what should have been a six-month-long overhaul, it has experienced a series of major problems.
The overhaul ended up taking nearly two years, not helped by a wildfire burning through the site and a series of issues with equipment. The bill for the overhaul soared from $70 million to more than $115 million.
Taltson had only been back for a few months when it was taken offline again for what was billed as summer maintenance. At that point, the corrosion concern became apparent.
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The plant’s latest outage began in late July, meaning it has so far lasted about five months.
Every month without the plant is another month burning expensive and polluting diesel for South Slave communities, at a time when the power corporation faces huge cost pressures.
The cost of work to fix the surge tank was initially estimated at $15 million, including $5.2 million in more diesel fuel for the South Slave. How the latest delay affects that figure isn’t clear.
In the longer term, the tank will need replacing, which will be another expensive project.
That project is likely to begin “in the next couple of years,” NTPC stated in September, adding that applying a temporary fix first and then devising a plan for the tank’s eventual replacement was “the lowest-cost option.”
