Fort Simpson outage planned as power poles move post-flood

Fort Simpson will undergo a partial power outage on Sunday morning as workers move poles and power lines from areas affected by riverbank erosion.

That erosion, already a problem, was worsened by the village’s spring flooding. Much of the village’s central island will lose power from 6am till 9am on Sunday, the NWT Power Corporation said, as infrastructure is moved.

“There has been significant erosion near the river that was accelerated by the spring flooding,” the power corporation said in a notice warning of the outage.

“Approximately 12 distribution poles and power lines are being moved further away from the river to ensure that this electricity infrastructure will not be impacted by future flooding events.

“Climate change poses a growing challenge to infrastructure maintenance in the North and this type of project is likely to be more and more necessary in the future.”

Fort Simpson’s diesel power plant is itself precariously close to the riverbank.

The power corporation plans to switch most of Fort Simpson’s power generation from diesel to liquefied natural gas, and is expected to that opportunity to relocate power generation to a new site.