Aishihik’s New Addition

Energy Supply

Nov 09, 2010  Comment

Construction of a third seven megawatt turbine at our Aishihik hydro plant is well underway. We expect the unit to be in service next year. However, the Aishihik water license stipulates that the Yukon Water Board must approve an operating plan before Yukon Energy can run all three turbines at the same time.

We recently received word that the Water Board has approved our plan, giving us the ability to operate all turbines as necessary.

The plan outlines the most efficient use of the turbines for the water available. At lower generation levels, the third (smaller) turbine is much more efficient than the two existing larger (15 megawatt) units. In the summer when we only need to generate small amounts of electricity at Aishihik, we’ll rely on the third turbine to meet our needs. The water we save in the summer can then be used to run all three units in the winter, when demand is higher. With the same amount of annual water consumption, we can generate an additional seven megawatts of hydro and therefore displace that amount of diesel fuel and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 3,800 tonnes each year.
 

Comments

Be the first to comment

Commenting is not available in this channel entry.