HAY RIVER - Hay River residents experienced hours of darkness last week following a double dose of mechanical failures that have left Northland Utilities running on a generator. Aside from the inconvenience, the malfunctions mean power customers in the South Slave may be paying more in the future.

Northland Utilities workers inspect the diesel generator at the power plant in Hay River last week, the mobile unit was brought in from Edmonton after a part in the back-up generator failed. - Elizabeth McMillan/NNSL photo

The failures began after a nine-day, planned annual maintenance shutdown at the Northwest Territories Power Corporation's (NTPC) Taltson hydro station on Sept. 18. A turbine part at the Hydro station failed, forcing Northland Utilities to switch to its back-up diesel generation system.

Not designed to supply full-time power to Hay River, the diesel generator failed and the utility company installed a mobile engine from Alberta. Unable to supply full power service to the community Northland Utilities implemented rotating rolling blackouts, leaving some customers without power for up to six hours a day.

Full diesel generation was restored over the weekend and will remain in place until the end October, when the Power Corp expects the Taltson Power Station to be back online.

"We're going to be stretched to the limit until (Taltson is running again). It does stretch our resources. We're going to have to be very diligent and very watchful," said Duane Morgan, manager in Northland Utilities in Hay River. The diesel engines "are made for short term. They're not designed for long-term full service," he said.

Morgan said the cost of running on diesel and staffing the machinery 24 hours a day for an extra four weeks is a concern.

"It's going to be a fair expense," said Morgan. "There are going to be extra costs. We're going to burn some extra diesel fuel, we're running shift work for an extra month ... it'll put a burden on Northland utilities and that'll affect our customers."

Northland is burning 24,000 litres of diesel per day.

The four-week delay is due to NTPC's turbine and related faulty equipment being sent to Ontario for repairs.

"Here in the North, the kind of services that are required to operate a system if something goes wrong, they aren't often available," said Mike Bradshaw, director of communications with the power corporation.

In the absence of hydro power, 120 drums of diesel fuel were shipped to Taltson site.

He said the total cost of the repairs won't be known until the work is finished.

In the meantime, the corporation is spending $12,000 per day to fuel Fort Smith and Fort Resolution with diesel power, he said.

The Taltson plant, located 64 km north of Fort Smith, provides power to Fort Smith, Hay River, Hay River Reserve, Fort Resolution and Enterprise.

Asked who would pay for the increased cost of running on diesel, Bradshaw said the Utility Review Board would have to come up with a plan.

"Diesel is definitely more costly so we'll have to see what those costs are and visit the costs with the public utilities. They'll determine what sort of cost recovery will be done," he said.

Back in Hay River, Northland has been shouldering the cost of diesel and it will have to deal with repairs to its machinery, which failed on Sept. 28.

For two days after the breakdown, Hay River residents were saddled with rotating blackouts and intermittent outages.

"We tried to move it around so it didn't last too long in some areas," Morgan said. "The goal was to try to keep the essential services going downtown - the hospital, medical clinic, core businesses and schools."

He said the blackout didn't last longer than two or three hours at a time and said the most any one area experienced in a 24-hour period was six hours without electricity.

"We tried to treat everyone fairly and equally," he said. "All the customers have had some effect."