The Northwest Territories Power Corporation (NTPC) says it won't know the impact of facility repairs and upgrades on power rates until it assesses the damage to its Snare Forks hydroelectric facility.
Colin Steed, director of Hydro Operations, Northwest Territories Power Corporation, left, and Michael McLeod, Member of Parliament for the Northwest Territories participated in the announcement of new funding to upgrade the Snare Forks Hydroelectric Facility.
The power corporation had plans to the unit offline in April 2019 as part of an overhaul but because repair costs haven't been assessed, the impact on electricity rates is uncertain at this time, said Doug Prendergast, communications manager for NTPC.
The power corporation is considering how many of the repairs it can roll into planned upgrades.
The federal and territorial governments announced $24.6-million on Nov. 14 to fund turbine and generator upgrades at its Snare Forks hydroelectric facility, 140 km northwest of Yellowknife.
The federal and territorial contribution to the upgrades will alleviate some of the costs that would have been borne by the power corporation and consequently ratepayers, he said.
“The overhaul was already scheduled to occur next year and what we're looking at now is how we can combine making the necessary repairs along with the broad overhaul,” he said.
The equipment failure has unbudgeted operating and maintenance costs related to the equipment failure, but NTPC is looking to accelerate the overhaul and upgrades to the facility, he said.
The power corporation will have more information on precise costs once the damaged unit is disassembled.
“At this point its much too early to have any firm basis on which to try to identify the impact on rates,” he said.
The funding will cover 75 per cent of the overhaul and the remaining 25 per cent will be borne by the NTPC, through its capital fund.
The costs to NTPC will affect how it calculates rates, he said.