Carcross Meeting | Monday, March 8, 2010

As you may know, we have been holding a series of public meetings in the Southern Lakes area to tell residents about our work to find more clean, renewable energy to meet the growing demand for electricity. Our latest meeting is set for this Wednesday night, March 10th, at 7 p.m. in Carcross. The meeting will take place at the Carcross Community Club. It will give people a chance to ask questions about an idea we have to increase winter storage on Marsh and Atlin Lakes, therefore providing more water to our Whitehorse plant in the late winter, when we need it the most for electrical generation.

It's important for you to understand that no decisions have been made to move forward with this concept. We must first gather a lot of information to determine if it is a viable project. Input from you will help determine how best to move forward. We hope to see as many Carcross residents at the meeting as possible.

 

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Public Meeting at Tagish | Monday, February 15, 2010

Tagish property owners and residents are invited to a public meeting this Wednesday evening (Feb. 17th) at 7 p.m. at the Tagish Community Centre. We'll be talking to you about some ideas we have for increasing the amount of hydro power we can produce at our Whitehorse plant. These ideas involve increased winter storage on Marsh Lake and some winter storage on Atlin Lake. Please contact us through this blog if you require more information. Hope to see you there.

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Squeezing the Most out of What We Have | Tuesday, February 2, 2010

As we work to meet the growing demand for electricity, we are committed to meeting that demand with clean energy. We feel it is our obligation to ensure, as much as possible, that the power we produce is from renewable sources. We believe that Northerners have a collective interest in keeping the environment clean.

To this end, Yukon Energy is looking at all possible sources of renewable energy, including geo-thermal, wind, and the enhancement of our existing hydro assets. Before we build any new hydro dams we want to make sure we are getting the most out of our existing facilities, since enhancement projects are far less expensive and have a smaller environmental footprint than new greenfield initiatives. At our Mayo plant, our enhancement work is in the form of our Mayo B project. At our Aishihik facility, we are adding a third turbine and looking to divert some water from Gladstone Creek to increase the amount of electricity we are able to produce. In Whitehorse, we have begun exploring the idea of  increased winter storage on both Marsh Lake and Atlin Lake. To learn more we invite you to read this newsletter that outlines the concepts. Please contact us if you have any questions.

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This Year’s Business Plan | Tuesday, January 26, 2010

For those of you who are interested, Yukon Energy's 2010 Business Plan is now available on-line. It can be found here.

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Marsh Lake Public Meeting | Wednesday, January 20, 2010

If you are a property owner in the Marsh Lake area, you may be interested in attending a public meeting being hosted by Yukon Energy on Thursday Jan. 28th at 7 p.m. The meeting will take place in the gym at the Marsh Lake Community Centre.

We are coming to re-visit with you the idea of holding back water in Marsh Lake longer in the fall in non-flood years. Some of you know that Yukon Energy had previously agreed to remove this idea from our 20-year Resource Plan. However our regulator, the Yukon Utilities Board asked us to give it further consideration.
 
We also want to discuss with you a concept we have to put some type of a control structure on the Atlin River, to retain water in the Atlin Lake in the fall for release in the winter.
 
No decisions have been made in either case about whether to move forward with these concepts. Your input at the public meeting on January 28th will help us determine how to proceed.
 
We hope to see you at the meeting.

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Accessing Information at Yukon Energy | Tuesday, December 22, 2009

There is new legislation in place that makes Yukon Energy subject to the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (ATIPP). Our method of operating is to try to be as open and transparent as possible, and so if there is information about our company that you are looking for we encourage you to approach us first with your request. It could save you time and money. We believe ATIPP should be considered a last resort, to be used if you have tried other avenues and have not been successful.  More information can be found on our web site.

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How Much Electricity Will You Use This Week? | Monday, December 7, 2009

Once again this winter, Yukon Energy is making a weekly chart available that shows how much electricity we expect people to use over the next seven days. The chart, found here, will help you see how close we are to having to turn on our diesel generators to meet the 'peak demand' on our Whitehorse-Aishihik-Faro transmission system, which services the Southern and much of the Central Yukon.

Peak demand can be explained this way: the amount of power that Yukon Energy must generate fluctuates depending on the time of day and the time of year. The breakfast and dinner periods, when families are using electricity to cook meals, heat water for showers or dishwashing, etc. are the times when energy demand is at its highest. This is especially true in the winter, when there is less day light and it is much colder than at other times during the year.

The green line on the chart indicates the amount of power we expect to need to generate at any given time this week. As long as it stays below the solid blue line, it means we anticipate meeting the energy demand using clean hydro. However any time you see orange peaks on the graph, it means we expect having to supplement with diesel during the period of time indicated in orange.

If you are careful with your energy consumption during peak times, you can help reduce the amount of diesel burned and save yourself some money in the process.

There are a number of simple ways of doing this. For instance, you could delay turning on your dishwasher until after the evening peak. You could opt for a quick shower instead of a bath, since hot water accounts for a substantial percentage of power used during peak periods. You can use a timer for your vehicle’s battery blanket or oil pan heater. Little things like these add up in terms of cutting down on power use.

 

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Carmacks-Stewart Line a Good Project Now and Into the Future | Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Yukon Energy would like to respond to recent comments in the media regarding costs for the Carmacks-Stewart transmission line. In a letter to the editor recently, the president of the Utilities Consumers’ Group stated that there was a large cost over-run on the line. This is misleading information and we feel it’s important that you know the facts. These facts are on the public record of our regulator, the Yukon Utilities Board.

 
In 2005, Yukon Energy first presented the idea of the Carmacks-Stewart transmission line in our 20-year resource plan. The plan was reviewed by our regulator the Yukon Utilities Board (YUB) and it recommended that we proceed with the project. At that time, we provided an early estimate for the line of $32 million, with Stage 1 (from Carmacks to Pelly Crossing) estimated at about $20 million. It was made clear to the YUB that the estimates were prepared before preliminary engineering and would not and could not be relied upon for proceeding with construction. Engineering is an expensive commitment. In the interests of prudency we wanted to hear from the YUB that it supported the project, before we proceeded further. From the very beginning of the project, however, Yukon Energy clearly committed that we would not proceed with building the line until such time as we had firm tendered costs that would ensure the budget for the project was realistic and achievable.
 
Once we were satisfied that we were on the right track (in the spring of 2007) we had engineering consultants prepare Stage 1 preliminary engineering and related cost estimates for us. Once we had an actual detailed estimate prepared by engineers and before we made the final decision to build Stage 1 of the line, Yukon Energy secured tendered costs for almost all major elements of the project. Based on those firm costs, we established a budget of $27.8 million for Stage 1. We then determined that at that price, the Carmacks-Stewart line was still a viable project that would result in savings for customers, which it has.
 
In summary, we made a decision in the fall of 2007 to move forward with the Stage 1 project at a budget level of $27.8 million. After our budget was in place, we learned that $1.8 million in additional costs were needed to change the routing of one section of the line as required by the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board (a cost that was out of our hands but did not affect the overall net savings to ratepayers in any material way). Apart from this added requirement for the routing change, the Carmacks to Pelly Crossing section of the line was built on time and on budget.
 
Stage 1 was paid for with a contribution from the Minto mine ($7.2 million), the Yukon government/Yukon Development Corporation ($17.4 million), and $5.1 millionby electrical customers. Because the cost is being spread out over the life of the line, it has not meant any increases in power bills. In fact, revenues from the newly-connected Minto mine meant we could ask the YUB for a rate reduction. It’s because of the new line and the new sales it has provided that Yukoners are now seeing a decrease of 2.47 percent on their power bills.
 
In delivering its decision on our most recent General Rate Application with the YUB, the regulator said costs for the Carmacks-Stewart line were prudent, and that the line provided a net economic benefit to Yukoners. During this hearing the Utilities Consumers’ Group and other intervenors had the opportunity to cross examine Yukon Energy in detail regarding the budgets and costs for the line. This detailed review included an extensive review of the timelines and estimates and it is clear that if the YUB did not think the project provided an economic benefit and was managed in a prudent manner in terms of costs and timing, it would not have allowed us to include the project’s costs in rates.
 
Yukon Energy is now moving forward with Stage 2 of the line, which will extend from Pelly Crossing to Stewart Crossing. Once finished in the spring of 2011, the line will interconnect our two major transmission grids and make it possible to manage all Yukon’s hydro resources as one integrated system.
Stage 2 is estimated to cost approximately $40 million, based on preliminary engineering performed in 2007 and our experience with Stage 1 construction. This estimate for Stage 2 was provided to the YUB and intervenors in April 2009 during the recent General Rate Application hearing and has been used publicly since the spring of 2009. Engineering and tendering for Stage 2 is currently underway. As Yukon Energy informed the YUB and intervenors in April 2009, at least $35 million of the costs for Stage 2 will be financed by contributions from governments and/or industry, and no more than $5 million will be recovered through rates charged to electricity customers. Once again, because costs can be spread out over the lifetime of the line, Stage 2 will not result in rate increases.
The record shows that Yukon Energy’s approach has been very transparent in dealing with both stages of the Carmacks-Stewart Transmission Project. We look at a project, put together a preliminary estimate, and then as we continue to research and review the economics of building the project we make decisions at various separate stages on whether to continue. Yukon Energy does not make final decisions to proceed with a project without firm estimates that include tendered prices for major elements of the project in hand. We do not rely on project planning estimates that have yet to be subjected to detailed engineering and cost estimating. We have been absolutely transparent with all of our project decisions before proceeding to construction. Since 2003 we have not built a major project costing more than $3 million, such as Carmacks-Stewart line, without both a Yukon Utilities Board and YESAA review and we remain committed to this approach in the future.
It is Yukon Energy’s job to provide Yukoners with a secure supply of clean, affordable energy. We’re committed to doing that with renewable energy initiatives like the Carmack-Stewart Transmission Project, which complement our existing hydro system.
Yukon Energy has constructed the Carmacks-Stewart project in a manner that will not adversely impact ratepayers today or in the future. Ratepayers will contribute $5 million for Stage 1 and will pay no more than that amount for Stage 2. The YUB’s recent General Rate Application decision confirmed that ratepayers actually secured savings from Stage 1, proving that the benefits were much greater than the $5 million of rate base costs.
The suggestion that the two stages of the Carmacks-Stewart project are over budget is not correct. The projects have been managed properly and all decisions to proceed were made with the best information available at the time. And to be clear, the record shows that the decisions to build these projects are not based on preliminary cost estimates that have not been through a detailed engineering and budgeting process. The record also shows that Stage 1, which is the only stage completed today, was done on budget and on time.
The bottom line is that the Carmacks-Stewart line is a good project that has already resulted in savings and benefits for Yukoners, and will continue to do so into the future.

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Update on Carmacks-Stewart Transmission Line | Monday, October 19, 2009

We thought it was time to give you an update on the work we are doing to complete the Carmacks to Stewart transmission line. As you may know, we completed Stage 1 of the line, from Carmacks to Pelly Crossing, last year. Now we've started the ground work on Stage 2, from Pelly to Stewart Crossing. Once Stage 2 is finished (by the spring of 2011) we'll be able to connect our two existing transmission systems. That will give us the flexibility to move power to whatever area needs it the most at any given time (from our Mayo plant to the southern Yukon, or from our plants in the south to communities in the Central Yukon). Ultimately this will help reduce the amount of diesel we have to burn to produce electricity.Clearning brush on Stage 1 of the Carmacks-Stewart line. Photo: Derek Crowe.

The first job in physically building the line involves the surveying. We've contracted the Whitehorse firm Challenger Geomatics to do this job. They in turn have hired several survey assistants from the Pelly Crossing area. The crews will spend the next few weeks marking the line route. Next comes the brush clearing, which will start late this month or early next. We'll be awarding the contract for that later this week.

Line construction will likely start in February or March. Sections of the line will be built in wet areas, so it’s important, as an environmental protection measure, to do construction in these sections while the ground is still frozen.

For safety reasons, Yukoners are asked to stay away from the area while the groundwork is taking place. If you absolutely must enter the work area, please prearrange access with the on-site project manager. Contact information for the project manager will be posted at worksite access points along the Klondike Highway, or can be obtained by contacting us here at Yukon Energy.

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Energy Saving Tips - Part Three | Monday, October 19, 2009

Our last section on energy saving tips (at least for now) focusses on home heating. If you're looking for more tips on reducing your power bill, the Yukon government's Energy Solutions Centre and the Yukon Housing Corporation have a lot of helpful information.

Oil heating systems

  • Clean or replace the furnace filter regularly. Pleated paper filters perform better.
  • Keep vents open to distribute heat.
  • Install a programmable thermostat to turn down the heat at night and when the house is unoccupied.
  • Look for the EnerGuide label when purchasing a new heating system.
  • Pick up a copy of Oil Burner Checklist from Yukon Housing.
  • Ask your furnace technician whether the appliance is performing to its maximum efficiency.

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