LLI GOLINE/NORMAN WELLS - A three-hour power outage in Norman Wells last month prompted a near state of emergency and has left the community questioning how it will cope without a reliable supply of gas in the near future.

Power went out in the Sahtu community of 760 just after 5 p.m. Dec. 21, when only one of Imperial Oil's three turbines was working. One turbine was undergoing routine maintenance and the other had been sent out for repairs after it was damaged by a lightning strike in early August.

The exact cause of the outage hasn't been confirmed, just that there was some discrepancy between Imperial Oil's and NWT Power Corp's equipment, but power was fully restored just before 8 p.m. and Imperial Oil was able to get a second turbine working shortly thereafter - fortunately for town residents, since one turbine could not reliably support both the oilfield and the town. If the power had stayed out for a longer period of time, the company would've had to shut down the town's gas lines to maintain the oilfield, which would have left residents with no heat in addition to no electricity. The oilfield must be kept going to provide fuel to the turbines

Mayor Dudley Johnson said, from his perspective, the town narrowly avoided disaster in -30 C temperatures.

"It's a crisis in the making, is what it is," he said. "We came as close as you can to calling a state of emergency and to start evacuating people. If Imperial Oil had not come back online when they said they would ... to keep us heated until the problem could be fixed, then we would've been in dire straits here."

Johnson wants an explanation as to why the NWT Power Corporation's backup generators didn't come on as usual when the power went out. He said the town is writing to the Power Corp. (NTPC) and Premier Floyd Roland, minister responsible for the Power Corp. to request a public meeting.

The town wants a guarantee that such an outage won't happen again, especially since warmer than usual temperatures this winter have prevented the winter road linking Norman Wells to Highway 1 from opening to its full capacity. The road is currently open to light traffic only, which doesn't allow for the transportation of freight or heavy supply loads.

"We still have a big problem because we still haven't got any backup, because it still hasn't been fixed," Johnson said.

Power Corp. spokesperson Mike Bradshaw said Imperial Oil, as the supplier, was responsible for handling questions about the outage, but that Power Corp. crews had been flown in to help.

"We were on standby. We sent a crew in there and were ready to generate power with diesel, because we have standby generators, but it wasn't required," Bradshaw said.

A message to residents from the town office said a Power Corp. crew was dispatched to Norman Wells from Fort Simpson during the Dec. 21 outage but didn't arrive until after power was restored.

Concerns about a reliable power supply for Norman Wells come at a crucial time for the town, which found out in October 2010 that its gas supply from Imperial Oil will come to an end July 1, 2014.

For several decades, the exploration company has sold the town the natural gas it produces as a by-product of extracting oil from the nearby oilfield, which has been in operation since the 1920s. But the oil reserves are dwindling and, with them, the gas supply, explained Imperial Oil spokesperson Pius Rolheiser.

"The decline in oil field volume is inevitable and there's nothing we can do about it. Ultimately we will no longer be able to provide an adequate supply of gas to the town and we've made the town aware of that," Rolheiser said. "We recognize that this is a significant issue and challenge for the town. We're doing our best to work with them and provide whatever expertise that we can, being in the energy business, to help them develop solutions."

The town has called a public meeting for Jan. 20 with Imperial representatives to discuss future power supply options, which include switching over to an electrical system. That would add about 240 households to the Power Corp.'s supply load, Johnson said, and the town questions whether the Power Corp. is equipped to handle it.

"Do they have the capabilities to deliver that power? Right now, they don't, because we have no backup," he said. "The town needs to know what's going to happen."

Norman Wells is one of a handful of communities that had expressed hope of getting its natural gas supply by linking to the recently National Energy Board-approved Mackenzie Gas Pipeline. But Imperial Oil has said that if construction does go ahead, the pipeline won't be ready for gas hook ups until 2018 at the earliest, leaving Norman Wells with three years to figure out a long-term alternative.

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