Last Night’s Art Unveiling | Wednesday, July 22, 2009

We thought you might enjoy seeing some photos of our new exhibit 'One Fish, Two Fish'. The unveiling took place last night at the Whitehorse Rapids Fishway, which is celebrating its 50th birthday this year. Thank you to all 90 artists who participated in this project and to Donald Watt who coordinated it for us.

This exhibit can be viewed from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week, until the end of August, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the Labour Day week-end.

Tracking Power Outages | Tuesday, July 21, 2009

There has been a fair bit of talk in the media recently about the high number of power outages lately. We thought you might find it helpful to see some hard data regarding Yukon Energy's outages over the last five years.

The chart below uses a few terms that should be explained: WAF stands for our Whitehorse-Aishihik-Faro transmission system, which is the one that we operate in the Southern and parts of the Central Yukon. MD stands for our Mayo-Dawson transmission grid, which operates in the Northern Yukon.

Controllable outages are those that are caused by equipment failure; in other words, they can be fixed. Outages caused by Mother Nature (lightning, ice on the line, animals or trees on the line) are uncontrollable outages.

Please note that these are outages related to Yukon Energy only and not to the company that distributes power in the territory.

Outage Data (pdf, 15KB)

Forest Fires Near Our Line | Monday, July 20, 2009

Grid power was restored just after one o'clock on Saturday morning. However we are continuing to monitor the situation closely and if necessary, we will de-energize the line again and Faro and Drury Creek residents will once more be serviced with diesel-generated electricity.

Please watch this blog for further updates.

This Week’s Water Levels | Friday, July 17, 2009

Here is the latest chart showing the water levels on Marsh Lake. Feel free to contact us should you have any questions.

Special Art Piece to be Unveiled at Fishway | Friday, July 17, 2009

The salmon have arrived early this year at the Whitehorse Rapids Fishway! This coming Tuesday (July 21) Yukon Energy will unveil a large public art piece entitled “One Fish, Two Fish”. The piece, which will be installed within the fishladder compound, commemorates the 50th anniversary of the fishway. It depicts a school of 55 Chinook salmon travelling up the Yukon River.

We wanted to find a special way of including Yukoners in the ladder’s 50th birthday celebration, so we hired local artist Donald Watt to coordinate the creation of an outdoor installation that would involve as many members of the public as possible. The response has been amazing! Ninety Yukoners helped create the fish; each one-of-a-kind wooden salmon was cut out by a group of local carvers and then decorated by individuals or teams of people. The artists ranged from 18 year old babies to elders from Old Crow, the Yukon's most northerly community. Many, many thanks to everyone who participated in this art project.

The art piece will be unveiled at 7 p.m. on July 21. Everyone is welcome to attend. If you do get a chance to see the fish, let us know what you think. We'd love to hear which salmon is your very favourite!

Lightning Strikes Again | Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Lightning is once again causing problems for us and for electrical customers. Just before lunch today, at 11:34 a.m., a lightning strike on our transmission line between Takhini and Faro caused power to go out briefly to Faro, Carmacks, Fox Lake, Deep Creek, Braeburn, Pelly Crossing and the Minto mine. Power was restored about 10 minutes later. Once again, we apologize for the inconvenience this outage may have caused you.

Sunday Evening’s Power Outage | Tuesday, July 14, 2009

As residents of some parts of Whitehorse are aware, there was a brief power outage on Sunday night. The problem began when there was a fault on Yukon Electrical Company Ltd.'s distribution system. That should have only cut power to about 800 residents. However a malfunction at one of our substations caused a more widespread outage, affecting an additional 4,700 customers. The power was out for about half an hour.

We have done an investigation and have found the problem at our substation. It will be repaired today. We recognize how annoying power outages are and we apologize for the inconvenience this one caused.

Please know that Yukon Energy has implemented an agressive maintenance schedule this year to upgrade our equipment and improve reliability of power. We are already seeing results; the instances of power outages related to Yukon Energy equipment has decreased by about 50 percent from what it was last year. We are working to reduce those numbers even further.

Latest Water Levels | Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Once again it is time to update you on this summer's water levels in the Marsh Lake area. The latest information can be found here. If trends continue as they have been, peak water levels should be below 2004 levels. Please feel free to contact us should you wish more details.

Lightning Suspected as Cause of Today’s Outage | Thursday, July 9, 2009

Yukon Energy officials are investigating the cause of two power outages this afternoon in parts of the Southern Yukon. Power went out at 2:21 p.m. in Faro, Carmacks, parts of Porter Creek, Crestview, and communities south of Whitehorse including Marsh Lake, Tagish and Carcross. The Minto mine was also affected.
 
Yukon Energy officials had restored power to everyone except the mine when another outage occurred, at 3:31 p.m. All the same communities were affected.
 
A high number of lightning strikes were reported in the Braeburn/Carmacks/Faro area, in the vicinity of Yukon Energy’s transmission line. Crews have been sent to examine the line. Meanwhile, the power is back on throughout the Southern Yukon.