Yellowknife (Jul 07/06) - They are an inconvenience for most, but when the power goes out in Yellowknife, many area businesses are on the losing end.

"If it goes down during business hours I lose up to $5,000 an hour in sales alone," said Extra Foods Manager Rob Byers, who operates the city's largest grocer.

Kim Luong, manager of the Vietnamese Noodle House, says Monday's noon-time power outage knocked out her debit/credit card machine, costing her several unpaid lunches. - Jason Unrau/NNSL photo

During his two years managing the 60,000 square foot store, Byers has never had to throw away any food gone off due to an electricity disruption. However, one incident can cost more than just sales.

"It causes circuit boards on refrigerators and computers to go, they're about $3000 a pop, it blows out ballasts in lighting systems. I know it's part of doing business here but it's unfortunate."

On Monday, three lightning strikes on the 130km line between Snare Hydro and Yellowknife caused electricity to go down in the morning, minutes before the lunch hour ended and 20 minutes before midnight.

For Kim Luong, manager of the Vietnamese Noodle House, the second outage could not have come at a worse time.

"We lost money because most customers pay by VISA or debit card," she said. "Our regulars came back (to pay) but some didn't."

As well, the midnight outage that lasted nearly a half hour forced Luong to throw out meat she was unsure of Tuesday morning.

"After 30 minutes it's not good for fresh food, so I wanted to be on the safe side," she said.

Allen Mueller, Manager of Consumer Services for Northland Utilities (distributor of electricity to Yellowknife and Hay River for the NWT Power Corp.), said he does get complaints about service disruptions, primarily from newcomers. "The people who've lived here for a while understand, it's the new residents that need to be educated," he said of having to explain the unique situation generating and distributing electricity in remote regions.

Mueller said that under the NWT Power Corporation Act, enforced by the Public Utilities Board, end users are responsible for their electrical equipment that may become damaged or result in damaged goods due to a surge or disruption in service.

Mueller added that if the outage is going to be longer than 30 minutes, the diesel generators at Jackfish Lake power station are brought on line. As for alternative power lines - which can offload electricity from one location to another - Mueller said it's just too expensive to consider for a remote place with small population base.

Not much of a consolation for Black Knight manager Pierre Garsonnin, interviewed by Yellowknifer while a repairman replaced compressors in two of his refrigerators because of Monday's outages.

"It seems ridiculous that in a capital city we have power outages like we do and basically we're sick and tired of them," he said. "They wreak havoc with our refrigeration systems and it's a general loss of revenue when the power goes out."

Like Luong at the noodle house, Garsonnin said most people pay with debit or credit cards and power outages can make it difficult to collect on bills either lost on the computer system or from people who fail to return to pay at a later date.