About Us

Annual Check-Up

 People aren't the only ones who need a yearly check up; so do our hydro and diesel units. Shown here is a photo of one of our employees doing the annual mechanical and electricial preventative maintenance work at our Mayo B hydro plant. Below, a bird's eye view of one of the Mayo B hydro generators.

Touring Our Facilities

Yukon Energy offers school tours of our facilities on a regular basis. But once or twice a year, we also invite adult members of the public to come see our Whitehorse plant. The most recent tour of this kind took place last month in connection with World Water Day. Murray Lundberg was one of the people who came to see our facilities. He maintains a great blog called "The ExploreNorth Blog" and he has written about his visit to the Whitehorse Rapids Hydro Facility. We really enjoyed reading and we hope you do too. Thanks, Murray!

What You Said About Wind Energy

 Last month we hosted a one-day workshop on the potential of wind energy in Yukon. We invited six wind experts to share their knowledge with about 70 members of the Yukon public. Here is a summary of what we heard.

How to Remove a 15 Metre (50-Foot) Long Bolt

 Because of the massive size of much of our critical equipment, renovations or major overhauls are never simple or easy jobs. This week, for instance, we began renovating one of the spillway gates and related structures at our Whitehorse dam. Just as their name suggests, the gates allow us to release (spill) water from Schwatka Lake into the Yukon River. The East Gate was refurbished a couple of years ago. Now we are doing the same to the West Gate. The gates operate on a screw-lift mechanism, where large gearboxes sitting at the top of a platform are turned by a central gearbox assembly. These gearboxes act on 15 metre (50 foot) long screws (bolts) that are attached to the gates to move them up or down. Each bolt weighs 5,900 kilograms (13,000 pounds), so obviously this is not a job for your average hand-held wrench! Instead, Project Manager Darrell Johnson called in TMar and R.C. Crane to help us with the removal. The screw covers (the orange and white structures being moved in the photographs) were removed yesterday without incident. The actual screws will be removed this afternoon. The screws will be shipped to Southern Canada where they will be inspected and refurbished. We’ll re-install them next month. Also next month we’ll do some maintenance on the spillgates themselves.

The Southern Lakes Water Level Committee

 As many of you know, Yukon Energy Corporation is considering changes to our water use license for the Southern Lakes and Whitehorse Rapids Generating Station. A group of Southern Lakes residents has formed a committee to act as a conduit between Yukon Energy and the public. The group will be hosting monthly information meetings jointly with us. The first of those meetings is scheduled for Tuesday, April 30th at 6:30 p.m. at the Carcross Community Club. The topic: The Concept. Meeting discussion points: 1. Introduction of the Southern Lakes Water Level Committee, purpose and goals 2. Yukon Energy’s current water use license allowances and restrictions 3. Conceptual water use license changes - height, volume differentials, etc. 4. Potential impacts related to water use license changes and mitigation measures being considered (a summary of our field work conducted to date can be found at the bottom of this page and it will be discussed in detail at future meetings.) 5. Timeline of potential project (current planning stage and next steps) For more information: Southern Lakes Water Level Committee Mary Ann Lewis, Secretary (867) 667-7670 ramal64@gmail.com Yukon Energy Corporation Janet Patterson, Manager of Communications (867) 393-5333 janet.patterson@yec.yk.ca At each meeting there will be discussion about specific issues related to the research studies being conducted, potential effects of the project should it go ahead, and possible mitigation measures. The meetings will be held on a rotation basis in Marsh Lake, Tagish, and Carcross. We hope you will join us and provide input on this important issue.

Watch for Us At the Trade Show!

Say Good-bye to that Old Fridge

 Are you looking to get rid of your old fridge? Did you know there’s a program that will not only give you cash towards a new energy efficient refrigerator, but also take away your old one for free? Two years ago, Yukon Energy and the Yukon government's Energy Solutions Centre (ESC) started a fridge and freezer retirement program as a pilot project. Since then, close to 400 older inefficient appliances have been retired, resulting in almost 400,000 kWh in energy savings. Because of its success, ESC and Yukon Energy have decided to continue this initiative, focusing just on refrigerators. Here's how it works: contact the Energy Solutions Centre and tell them you have one or two old fridges that you'd like to get rid of. The appliances must be in current use and they must be five or more years old. ESC will arrange for up to two appliances to be picked up and taken to the landfill. They'll pay the landfill tipping fee and you'll receive $50 towards the cost of each new fridge that you purchase! Most homeowners aren't aware that it can cost $100 or more per year to run an older fridge. This program doesn't just give financial incentives off the top, but it also provides ongoing energy bill savings, as the new energy efficient appliances require less electricity. Call The Energy Solutions Centre at 393-7063 or toll free in Yukon at 1-800-661-0408 ext. 7063 to register for this program. You can visit their website to get further details.

More Reliability Projects

 Some of you may have noticed some work taking place at our substation located on the Mayo Road near Whitehorse (photo shows the ground being cleared for the expansion). We are upgrading the substation so that we can supply power to the soon to be built Whistle Bend subdivision. At the same time we are making improvements to our system that will limit outages to smaller geographic areas and allow us to restore power more quickly during an outage. The project will be completed next year. At a cost of $12-million spread over two years, it is our largest capital project underway right now. A good two-thirds of our capital budget each year goes toward improving reliability. Other reliability projects for this year include: • Whitehorse spillway – in 2012 we began refurbishing the spillway gates and structures at our Whitehorse dam. The work will be completed in 2013. • Overhauls: we completed overhauls in 2012 on one of our older Aishihik hydro units and one of our Dawson diesels. In 2013 we’ll overhaul one of our Whitehorse hydro units, the second of our older Aishihik generators, and another of our Whitehorse diesel units.