Derek Neary
Northern News Services

NNSL (Mar 19/99) - A pair of energy consultants hired by the village of Fort Simpson said the village is making a wise choice by exploring its power supply options.

Dennis Bevington and Jack Van Camp, of Stand Alone Energy Systems Ltd. based in Fort Smith, said the decision to call for proposals will prove "very much to your benefit."

"Fort Simpson is leading the way here in the Northwest Territories in looking for alternatives," said Bevington. "It's a very important time for you...it's about time for a community to make a move like this."

The consultants will oversee the call for qualifications process, which precedes the proposal call. Through their research, they came up with some very interesting figures which they presented to council on Monday evening.

In a direct cost comparison among Fort Simpson, Watson Lake and Fort Providence, the total cost per kilowatt hour showed Fort Simpson, under the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, paying the highest price at .323 kw/h. Fort Providence ranked second, through Northlands Utilities, at .243 kw/h. Watson Lake, comparable in size and also a diesel-generated system with a plant similar to Fort Simpson's, was far and away the cheapest at .181 kw/h. Their power is supplied by the privately-owned Yukon Electric Company, according to Bevington.

"Of the three, Fort Simpson is definitely paying the big price here...it's quite a bit more," Bevington said, adding that maintenance and administrative costs could be lowered, and there are problems with distribution losses.

Bevington described the current power plant in Fort Simpson as "not terribly efficient," and said he had a hard time believing the Power Corp.'s estimate of $8-10 million for costs to move the plant off the island, should that be requested.

In another cost comparison, Bevington and Van Camp indicated that Fort Simpson pays $50,898 for meter reading services while Fort Smith, where there are 500 more customers, pays only $33,336 for the same service.

Members of council were clearly exasperated by these figures.

"This is not a performance-based system," Bevington suggested.

Van Camp added that the service price is set by whatever the Power Corp. can justify to the public utilities board.

During the presentation, they also discussed the renewable and non-renewable energy options available to Fort Simpson, as well as the management options. They are preparing newspaper advertisements for a request for qualifications, which will be reviewed by council.

"They (the energy companies) are going to want to do this exercise," Bevington said. "This is going to help their growth."

Mayor Norm Prevost seemed confident that there will be great interest on behalf of the energy supplying companies.

"We're going to have a lot to pick from. We'll deal with the ones who want to give us the best," he said.

Van Camp added, "If you're going to take this initiative and break trail, it's important that it works. We can't let it fail."