Rankin Inlet (Oct 04/06) - The Hamlet of Rankin Inlet conquered a power shortage by plugging into its vast supply of community spirit this past week.

The community's main power generator went down on Sept. 23 when its water pump let go, taking a number of gears with it for good measure.

While the gears and other hardware were readily available in Canada, two water pumps had to be flown in all the way from Chicago, Ill., in the U.S.

The pumps arrived in Rankin on a Calm Air flight on Sept. 27, and the generator was back at full capacity the following day.

Mike Yarema is the operations supervisor at the Rankin power plant.

He said the plant's two back-up generators were pressed into service immediately to supply power to the community when the main unit went down.

"All in all, things went pretty smoothly in getting the parts here so quickly, especially with the pumps coming from the U.S.A.," said Yarema.

"The problem with getting things across the Canada-U.S.A. border these days didn't make things any easier."

The unit's failure was the first significant problem to strike generators at the Rankin power plant for a number of years.

Yarema said there were some issues with the smell of the plant's exhaust about a year ago, but it's been a few years since anything mechanical revolted against them.

He said, as far as he's concerned, the Qulliq Power Corp. does an outstanding job in Rankin and across the rest of Nunavut.

"I'm not bragging, or anything like that, about the level of efficiency at the Rankin power plant, but, for all their impressive size and power, these generators are still only engines.

"We do the best we can with what we have to keep them going, and, as far as I'm concerned, Nunavut Power is batting 1.000 across the territory when it comes to keeping generators operating and power flowing.

"It's a challenge Nunavut Power meets effectively, no matter what some people may say on the street.

"There's tremendous strain on these engines because they're going almost full bore for 14 hours a day.

"Sure, we have a few problems here and there, but, given what we have and where we're located, we're doing a great job overall."

Yarema said the turning point for the Rankin power plant being able to meet the challenge of the past week was the effort the community made to conserve energy.

He said people in buildings all over town turned off lights they didn't need and shutdown all non-essential equipment.

"The community really rallied behind us on this one and we really appreciate the support.

"Almost every place in town that owned a generator had it going this past week."

Rankin's main generator is rated a little more then two times higher than the two units which comprise the back-up system.

The main generator comes in at 2.15 megawatts, while the biggest back-up engine is only 950 kilowatts.

The Rankin power plant is in the process of installing a new generator to boost its overall capacity.

The new unit is 1.5 megawatts and will replace one of the existing backup generators, adding about 500 kilowatts to the plant's capability.

The unit is expected to be up and running in about six weeks.

Yarema said the people of Rankin Inlet deserve a lot of praise for the effort they put forth while the main generator was down.

"From the teachers who shut down their lights in the school at dinner, to people who refrained from turning on their ovens or home computers, every little bit helped and made a difference.

"People should be aware of that.

"Everyone who did something, no matter how big or how small, helped reduce the strain on our system."

Rankin Mayor Lorne Kusugak agrees with Yarema, noting that the community did a superb job in conserving power throughout the week.

He said residents kept power consumption well-below normal levels during peak periods of usage.

"That's pretty incredible when almost every household had to buy into the plan for significant power savings to occur," said Kusugak.

"The community is to be commended for its efforts."