Yellowknife (July 28/06) - A week of blackouts, brownouts and power failures have some local businesses losing more than just the lights.

Cecile Bleakney, the manager of the Shear Delight hair salon, is frustrated with the recent blackouts and the damage they cause.

Quickstop supervisor Steve Holmes throws out pizza dough after a power outage on Tuesday afternoon. Holmes says that if food is half-cooked and the power goes out, they need to start over, which can be frustrating. Other businesses in town are also concerned about the recent power outages. - Dez Loreen/NNSL photo

"Our Visa machine keeps blowing out during the blackouts," she said.

"It's happened so many times before and I have a new machine on order right now. It should be in later this week."

Hairstyles and cuts have to be put on hold during the power outages, which can be bad for customers.

"I just stop what I'm doing and wait it out. The person in the seat just waits as well," said Bleakney. "When the power comes back on, we finish up the style."

"There were three in one day last week," said Bleakney.

"That's too much."

Megan Cathers is a clerk at Video Effects and said when the lights go out, she has to stop serving customers.

The video rental system is computer based, but has a battery back up system installed.

"We don't lose any information, but we can't process any rentals until the power comes back on," said Cathers after two more blackouts Tuesday afternoon.

The video store doesn't close, but the customers are asked to wait until the power is restored.

"If it's really busy, we will just write down their rental, take the money and process it when the power's back on," said Cathers.

The business that perhaps suffers the most from the outages is the Quickstop at Northmart.

Steve Holmes is the supervisor of the fast food kitchen and said they usually have to throw out food during an outage.

"If we have a pizza that is half-way through the oven and the power goes out, we have no choice but to start over," he said.

"It gets frustrating because we're always busy with customers."

Once the power goes out at the Quickstop, all the ovens and fryers need to be warmed up, which takes more time.

"If some people are down for 20 minutes, we're down for at least 30," explained Holmes. "It severely hurts our productivity."

Northwest Territories Power Corporation manager Terry Rafferty said the recent cluster of outages is a result of a new gas engine being installed.

"We have been preparing for this engine since March and April, and are getting the bugs out now," said Rafferty.

"This past week has been our testing period. We are currently just setting the new engine to our existing systems."

Rafferty said the engine is being installed this week and the problems should be over by tomorrow.