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IQALUIT
Some Iqaluit residents spent part of Aug. 19 without electricity during a planned power outage as the Qulliq Energy Corporation worked on upgrading the power grid for the capital city.

Meghan McRae, manager of corporate communications with Qulliq Energy, said the work at this stage of the project involves changing the distribution lines and transformers. The $14 million, three-year project is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2012. At that time, Iqaluit will switch to a 25 kV power distribution system from the current 5 kV. This is needed to improve the distribution's efficiency as well as to accommodate anticipated population growth.

The outage, the third large one of the summer, started at 8 a.m. and ended at 2 p.m., affecting L'ecole des Trois Soleils, Telesat, the Arctic Winter Games arena and all of Apex. McRae said the choice of day and time was intended to inconvenience as few people as possible since many residents would be at work during those hours.

When completed, the upgrades will make Iqaluit the first Nunavut community to operate on a 25 kV grid.

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