Update on the Outage at Keno | Wednesday, January 4, 2012

It has been a difficult few days for people in Elsa and Keno. They have had a lengthy outage earlier this week, and a shorter one this morning. While the power is back on, we understand their frustration, and we want to apologize to them for these outages.

Here is some information to help you understand what has happened over the last few days. Be aware that Yukon Energy transmits the power to Elsa and Keno, and Yukon Electrical Company Ltd. distributes it to customers there (apart from the Alexco mine, which is Yukon Energy's customer). Both utilities have worked closely together to get power restored. Yukon Electrical Company brought in a stand-by diesel generator to Keno, but when it didn't function as it should have, Yukon Energy was able to offer one of our own back-up generators. We used it this morning to get the lights back on in Keno.

In terms of the transmission line, we believe the problem was caused by heavy snow; there have been snow storms in the area over the last several days. We flew the line yesterday and couldn't find anything else that could have been the culprit. We are flying the line again today, this time using fault detectors to help us troubleshoot. They are devices that can be hung on sections of the line and will flash when there is a fault. They help us pinpoint a problem.

Again, we want to apologize to residents and businesses that have been affected by these outages and to assure you we are working as diligently as we can to get the transmission system restored to proper working order.

Outage in Keno | Tuesday, January 3, 2012

For those in Keno City who are currently experiencing a power outage, please know that we are doing everything we can to restore service to you. We have a crew flying over the Elsa line right now to try to find the problem. Also, we are assisting your service provider, Yukon Electrical Company Limited, by delivering another stand-by generator to your community. It should be there by mid-afternoon today.

One way or another, you should have power restored within the next few hours.

Cause of Today’s Outage | Tuesday, July 19, 2011

We now know the cause of the overnight power outage. A malfunctioning speed sensing device on one of our hydro units caused power to go out early this morning. The unit has been taken off line and will remain out of service until any necessary repairs/replacements are made. In the meantime, the electricity demand will be met with our other three Whitehorse hydro generators and our Aishihik hydro units.

Yesterday’s Power Outage | Monday, June 27, 2011

An unfortunate set of circumstances resulted in an outage yesterday in Mayo, Keno, Elsa, Stewart Crossing, and Dawson City.

Power went out on the Mayo-Dawson line at 3:43 p.m. as a result of what we believe was a lightning strike. Power was restored to the town of Dawson seven minutes later (six minutes in one section of town and seven minutes in the other) using the Dawson back-up diesels. However power didn’t come back on in the Hunker Creek industrial area until 7:45 p.m. A problem on what is known as the ‘express feeder’ that serves Hunker Creek prevented us from re-energizing that section of line. While that feeder is now working fine, we will be sending a crew there this week to investigate the problem.

In Mayo, Keno and Elsa power also took considerably longer to be restored. Normally in a Mayo outage we would use our back-up diesels in the community. For whatever reason, the diesels did not work last night. We would have fed Mayo using Dawson diesel, but the issue on the Hunker Creek portion of the line prevented us from doing that. Power was restored to Mayo at 7:42 last night and to Elsa and Keno, including the Alexco mine, at 9:20 p.m.

We have just recently energized the Carmacks-Stewart line and have been feeding Mayo and Dawson with hydro from the Whitehorse-Aishihik-Faro grid for the last several days. However we are still fine tuning the protection equipment at our Stewart Crossing substation. During this outage, the protections did not work as we expected them to and so we had to send someone to Stewart Crossing to manually close the breaker, allowing us to again feed Mayo, Elsa, Keno and Stewart Crossing with hydro power from Whitehorse.

This morning, all our customers are back on hydro power from our Whitehorse and Aishihik plants.

Today crews will be investigating the cause of the Mayo diesel problem, and then the necessary repairs will be made. The protections at the Stewart Crossing substation will be adjusted so that in another outage on the Mayo-Dawson line, hydro power should continue to be delivered from the southern portion of the Yukon grid. We are also sending another back-up diesel to Mayo this week.

According to the weather forecast we could see more lightning activity in the Mayo/Dawson area today. We are watching closely and are doing everything we can to prepare for another potential outage. We sincerely apologize to those who were affected by the power outage.
 

One Integrated Grid | Friday, June 17, 2011

Yukon Energy's Carmacks-Stewart transmission line is now in service. The line has allowed us to join together what were until last night two separate grids: the Mayo-Dawson grid in the northern Yukon and the Whitehorse-Aishihik-Faro transmission line in the southern part of the territory.

This connection gives us the ability to manage our transmission system as one integrated grid. It will provide us with a lot more flexibility and it will allow us to make the most efficient use of our hydro resources. If we need more renewable power in the South, we can now provide that power from our Mayo hydro plant. If more clean power is needed in the North, we can provide it via our Aishihik or Whitehorse plants.

The true benefits of this new line will come starting late this year, once we have Mayo B and Aishihik 3 in operation. Together, these legacy assets will provide Yukoners with renewable power for many years. Photo: (L-R) Yukon Energy Chair Piers McDonald, Yukon MP Ryan Leef, Yukon Premier Darrell Pasloski, and Yukon Energy president David Morrison push a computer button symbolizing the energizing of the Carmacks-Stewart line. Photo credit: Christian Kuntz.

Power Outage in Keno | Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Three power poles that fell to the ground in a swampy area were the cause of a recent power outage at the Bellekeno mine and mill, and in Keno City. Power went out on Sunday evening and was restored late yesterday afternoon. The outage was lengthy because it was necessary to build a road into the site to make the repairs.

Yukon Energy apologizes to Keno residents and to the Bellekeno mine for the disruption in service.

More On Yesterday’s Power Outage | Wednesday, March 23, 2011

We now have more information about the cause of yesterday's power outage in the Central and Southern Yukon. The black-out was a result of a problem with a piece of our equipment at the Faro mine. The technical term for the equipment is a low side bus duct, which essentially is a set of cables that connect our transformer to the Faro mine. The mine is currently being fed through an alternate transformer until we can repair or replace the damaged bus duct.

The Faro mine noticed smoke and sparks coming from the bus duct, and notified us. We want to thank the mine for reporting the problem to us, because it helped us locate the source of the problem.

This Afternooon’s Power Outage | Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Power has now been restored to almost all Yukon communities that were affected by this afternoon's outage. The power went out to most areas of the Southern and Central Yukon at 2:23 this afternoon. Electricity was restored to almost everyone by 3:45 p.m., with some areas receiving power sooner than that. A few customers between Faro and Carmacks remained without power until about 9:30 tonight.

Whenever there is an outage, our first priority is to restore power, and only once that has been accomplished do we begin to investigate the cause. We have dispatched crews to do that investigative work and we hope to know the reason for the outage by tomorrow.

Please accept our apologies for any difficulties this outage may have caused you.

Sunday’s Outage | Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Heavy ice and snow on Yukon Energy's transmission line between Carmacks and Faro resulted in a short power outage this past Sunday (Jan. 23rd). Power went out at 2:13 a.m. and affected Riverdale, and points north to Carmacks, Faro, Ross River and Pelly Crossing. Power was restored within 41 minutes, and was returned much sooner in some places such as Riverdale, where it was only out for nine minutes. Yukon Energy apologizes for the inconvenience caused by this outage.