Tara Kearsey
Northern News Services

Hay River (Aug 21/00) - Power customers in Hay River may have to fork out more money for electric bills.

It's all because of a lightning bolt that hit one of NWT Power Corporation's Pine Point transformers last month. That resulted in a fire at the substation and irreparable damage to one of its transformers.

As a result, NTPC's second transformer is functioning independently and Northland Utilities has been running its generator during peak times in order to stabilize the power flow into the town. A replacement for the damaged transformer is not expected until Sept. 6.

"With that, of course, there's costs involved," said Northland's manager Duane Morgan.

He said for every hour the diesel plant runs, Northland burns 600 litres of diesel fuel.

"Those are the extra costs we will be looking at passing on ... it will have an impact on rates in Hay River," said Morgan.

If there is an increase, Morgan said Northland's would apply to the Public Utilities Board for a rider to collect the additional costs sometime around the end of September.

However, he said Northland Utilities will be looking to NTPC to foot the bill on behalf of the town's customers.

NTPC spokesperson Peter Watt said passing the additional costs on to customers is not unusual in situations like this.

"Certainly in terms of additional costs, it all comes back down to the cost of doing business.," he explained. "There's obviously a cost to replacing transformers just like those costs to replacing other items of generation and distribution."

When equipment has to be replaced for any reason, whether it's been damaged by lightning or if it has simply outrun its useful life, Watt said the resulting capital expenditures are always built into the overall cost of doing business.

The new transformer is expected to cost about $150,000.