Going natural
Inuvik residents enjoy the benefits and savings of natural gas

Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Jan 17/00) - The issue of lighting and heating our homes is never closer to our hearts than during the cold, dark winter months.

The folks in Inuvik are starting to realize savings and convenience in heating homes and businesses with natural gas. Some say it won't be long until that sweet gas is travelling down the Mackenzie Valley to communities along the Big River.

The Northwest Territories Power Corporation has converted to gas-generated power in Inuvik and despite a few growing pains, Pun Chu, director of operations, said the system is now running smoothly.

"We've got most of the problems solved now and we haven't had an outage for over 20 days," Chu said.

"We had some control and communication problems," he said.

"Basically the engine was mis-firing -- you have certain parts of the cylinder igniting and not others. If the problem continues, then it will shut the engine down."

Advice from the manufacturer and a little experience goes a long way, Chu said.

"We've had some adjustments made by the manufacturer's technicians and that problem is basically resolved," Chu said.

NTPC hasn't given up completely on the old Detroit diesel, Chu said, but the primary plant is the cleaner, cheaper, natural gas power generator.

"We have two separate power plants in Inuvik," he said.

"What we did was convert one to a gas-fired power plant, the diesel remained in effect at the other one, so in the event of losing the gas engine, we will still have the diesel as back up for the community."

While the cost of burning natural gas is cheaper, Chu says the customers won't realize any savings until the capital costs of the new equipment is recovered.

"The fuel cost is about 75 to 80 per cent of the cost of diesel," he said.

Savings on the way


"The community will not immediately realize savings, but over the 15 to 20 year life of the project the customer will see some savings."

In an attempt to drum up new customers for the gas company, Inuvik Gas Ltd. has offered a subsidy for residents to tie into the pipe. The subsidy is funded equally by the GNWT and Inuvik Gas Ltd. said Jill Finley, marketing and sales representative for Inuvik Gas.

"Right now, we have both commercial and residential converting and so far, we've had 84 residential customers converting.

"The subsidy is for residential customers only and it's in effect until March, 2001," Finley said. "The grant is applicable up to a maximum of $2,700 and that money only goes towards a furnace, boiler or uni-heater -- it has to be your main source of heat."

The subsidy makes the conversion to the cheaper fuel more attractive to customers, Finley said.

"We are at a 15 per cent savings over the price of oil in town."

The GNWT provides a subsidy for groups not eligible for the homeowner grants.

"There is a subsidy for non-profit organizations who don't qualify for our program, like churches, group homes, training centre, the community centre and the greenhouse -- anything that is a non-profit organization that is not funded by the government," she said.

The company also has an elder's subsidy, which is funded entirely by Inuvik Gas.

Todd Moran was the 100th Inuvik resident to convert from diesel to natural gas. He says he enjoys the performance of the new fuel source.

"It's a lot warmer and quieter," he said. "The house is seems a lot warmer because the new furnace gives of more heat and it runs more quietly than the diesel furnace."

He says it's too early to tell if he's saving money using gas.

"It's only been in for about a month, so it's hard to compare right now," he said. "I'd know a lot better next month."

Bob Manuel is one of the new owners of the Grapevine restaurant (formerly the Blue Moon Bistro) in Inuvik. Manuel said they are hoping to get gas hooked up, but will have to wait until the weather warms up a bit.

The convenience of natural gas is the primary reason for the switch, Manuel said.

"Natural gas is consistent -- it's there and it's readily available; you don't have to get your tanks filled all the time," he said.

"We've only been open since Monday and we called Sunday to get gas delivered and they couldn't deliver it because the truck was frozen.

At the other end of the Mackenzie Valley, Chief Harry Deneron of the Acho Dene Koe First Nation in Fort Liard, said they hope to be pumping gas down the line by the spring of this year and things are going as scheduled.

"We're moving along pretty good here," Deneron said.

"There are three pipelines proposed and we have no obstacles facing us."

Getting individual homes connected to natural gas may take a while, Deneron said.

"We are waiting to see if any discoveries are made on our side of the river first, but there are three things we want to do.

"Firstly, we want to generate power and sell the power back to the government, or to have it for our own distribution," he said.

"Secondly, we want to hook up our new proposed sawmill to natural gas. Thirdly, we want to hook up the bigger institutional buildings to natural gas."

"The conversion for individual houses will no doubt take some time, but it certainly part of our plan," Deneron said.

"Our working partners in the project are aware of our plans."

Limited supply

Mid-way up the valley, Norman Wells residents are enjoying partial natural gas service. The Imperial Oil plant siphons off natural gas as a byproduct from the oil process.

"Esso has a limited supply of natural gas for the majority of buildings in town," said Mayor Frank Pope.

"Natural gas is in short supply and I have a big problem with that when I see the flare stack.

"It's a very clean, very affordable fuel for our community," he said.

"People on gas are paying $60 to $80 a month and I'm on diesel fuel where I live and I think last month I paid about $330," he said.

"There's been all kinds of talk about a pipeline," he said. "If you remember back in the 1970s, before Mr. Berger, there was talk of bringing Prudhoe Bay natural gas down the Mackenzie too, but that got kind of all screwed up, so they built an oil pipeline instead.

"If people have access to natural gas and it costs them a few thousand bucks to get it installed it's well worth the cost, because in my opinion you'll recoup your costs very quickly," Pope said.