News & Events

Check this section for Yukon Energy's latest news and coming events.

If you have questions about any of the information posted here, please contact:

Lisa Wiklund
Manager, Community Relations
Yukon Energy Corporation
Phone: (867) 393-5398
Email: Lisa.Wiklund@yec.yk.ca

Energy Supply, Environment
Sep 24, 2012  Comment

What the Glaciers Are Telling Us - Part 2

You might recall that last year, we hired scientists from the Yukon's Northern Climate ExChange, the University of Alberta and the Yukon Geological Survey to gather information on the expected impacts of climate change on the glaciers that feed our hydro systems. The report is available for you to read on-line. The report pointed out a number of areas where there were information gaps.  In particular, it suggested that more study be done of the Llewellyn Glacier due to its large size and potentially high sensitivity to climate change. Another recommendation was to focus on how snow conditions might change with continued warming. We have taken that advice and are now working with the same organizations on the next phase of our glacier research. Scientists have installed two monitoring stations in the Fantail River basin - the headwaters of the Yukon River - close to Atlin, B.C. The stations will record information such as air temperature, precipitation (both rain and snow) and solar radiation. They'll track changes in the weather both in the medium and long term. By having a network of long-term weather observation stations, the researchers will be able to recognize the differences between long-term climatic changes and year-to-year or cycle-to-cycle weather variations.   The Yukon Research Centre at Yukon College has written an article that provides more detail on the work being done. We think you'll find it an interesting read. Below are photos of the field crew installing one of the monitoring stations at a site on the Upper Fantail. Photo credit: Lacia Kinnear/Yukon Research Centre.

Energy Supply, Reliability
Sep 26, 2012  Comment

Breathing New Life into an Old Substation

We've talked alot about the fact that we have a new power station in Mayo (Mayo B). However you may not know that we've devoted a lot of time over the last two years refurbishing our Mayo substation. The work is almost complete; the substation should be on-line in about a month or so. Substations are a critial part of our infrastructure. They transform voltage from high to low, or from low to high so that generated power can be properly routed to where it is needed. Think of them as traffic circles for electricity. In this case, all the power coming from both our Mayo A and Mayo B hydro facilities will be routed so that it can be transmitted to any and all communities connected to the Yukon grid. Our Mayo substation was at the end of its life and needed upgrading, especially with Mayo B online. Most of the outside structural and electrical work is done, and we are just waiting for the new control building to arrive. It should be on site within the next week or two. Below are a couple of photos of the substation construction. Photo credit: F & M Installations, the major contractor on this project.  Other major work taking place at our Mayo facilities includes refurbishing the spillway gates at the Wareham Lake dam (scheduled for completion by late October) and installing a new headgate (also scheduled for completion in October). The spillway gates control the release of water from a dam and a headgate controls the flow of water to a hydro generator. The aim of most of the work being done in Mayo is to improve reliability and reduce the number of outages.

Billing
Nov 05, 2012  Comment

Investigating a High Winter Power Bill

No matter how careful you are, there's a good chance that you'll use more electricity during the winter months, especially if you have electric heat. Shorter days mean our lights are on longer, and we tend to use appliances such as electric stoves longer or more often. Winter is also when we plug in our vehicles, something that can be a big draw on power. If you receive a bill and you think it’s higher than it should be, we'd be happy to work with you to investigate the cause. But first, you can do a bit of sleuthing on your own. For instance, compare your usage. Look at how many kilowatts you consumed compared to other months to see if it has increased. There’s a graph on your bill that shows your consumption each month for the past year. Think about what may have been different in the last couple of months. For instance, did you have visitors in your home that might have accounted for higher energy usage (extra showers or higher washer/dryer and dishwasher use)? Have you recently used electronics such as portable space heaters, which draw a lot of power? If it’s around winter holidays such as Christmas, you might be baking more, using Christmas lights, your young adult children might be home from university, etc. Note that we have asked the Yukon Utilities Board to approve a rate increase of 6.5 percent in 2013, but it will be some time before we know if that will be granted (the YUB could approve the full amount of our request, a smaller percentage, or none at all). In the meantime the Utilities Board has granted an interim rate increase of 3.75 percent starting on January 1, 2013. We will notify you on this blog once we receive the Utilities Board's final ruling. If you’ve considered all these factors and still can’t determine what would have caused your bills to increase to the extent they have, please contact us by email at billing@yukonenergy.ca, call us at 1-877-712-3375 or 993-5565, or if you live in Dawson City, drop into our office.