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

Community Involvement
Jul 25, 2012  Comment

Save the Date

The Whitehorse Rapids Fishway will host its annual Visitor Appreciation Night on Wednesday, August 15th between 5:00pm and 9:00pm. There'll be food, kids’ games, great door prizes and a salmon sorting demonstration. Locals and visitors alike are invited to bring your families and friends for a great night. We hope to see you there. The fishway is owned by Yukon Energy and operated by the Yukon Fish and Game Association.
Community Involvement, Environment
Jul 26, 2012  Comment

Cheering on the Salmon

We have, with heavy hearts, been reading and listening to the news that this will likely be a poor year for chinook salmon returns to our Whitehorse Rapids fishladder. Given the situation, we think it will be more important that ever to welcome and celebrate the salmon that do return. We encourage you to learn as much as you can about these amazing creatures, their life cycle, and their journey back up the Yukon River to their natal spawning grounds. This booklet will get you started. As well, we thought we'd run a contest in partnership with the Yukon Fish and Game Association (the group that operates the fishladder for Yukon Energy). You're invited to send us your best guess as to the day and time that the first Chinook will arrive in our fishladder this year. The winner gets a selection of Yukon Energy clothing and accessories worth $100. You can post your guess here, on our Facebook page, or on the Whitehorse Fish Ladder's Facebook page. Good luck!
Safety
Jul 30, 2012  Comment

National Recognition for our Health and Safety Record

We received some great news the other day. Each year the Canadian Electricity Association (CEA) recognizes member utilities that have made outstanding achievements in terms of health and safety performances. The Association evaluates the number of incidents requiring medical aid, as well as the amount of time lost due to a work-related injury. Yukon Energy has received top scores in both categories and has therefore been given a 2011 Vice-President’s award for safety performance among small utilities (fewer than 500 employees) in the areas of Generation, Transmission and Distribution. “I’m proud of our accomplishment and am thrilled that Yukon Energy is getting this kind of recognition on the national level,” Manager, Safety & Safety Melanie Pettefer said. “I want to encourage staff to keep up the great safe work practices."
Community Involvement
Aug 06, 2012  Comment

Still in the Running

You may have heard news reports that the first few salmon have arrived at the Whitehorse Rapids Fishladder. While they are pooling at the bottom of the ladder, none has ventured up yet, so you still have a chance to enter our Quick Contest Challenge. Just take a guess as to the day and time that the first salmon will arrive in the ladder and you can win $100 worth of Yukon Energy clothing and accessories.  
Community Involvement, Environment
Aug 07, 2012  Comment

The Latest Water Levels on the Southern Lakes

Throughout the summer we regularly update a chart that shows our predictions for peak levels on the Southern Lakes (Marsh Lake in particular). Here is the latest chart.  You will notice that water levels have remained fairly steady over the last few days. We still think they'll peak somewhere around where the 2004 levels did. Please let us know if you have questions about this.
Community Involvement, Environment
Aug 07, 2012  Comment

The First Salmon of the Season!

We have a winner! The first chinook salmon entered our fishladder today at 3:10 p.m. She's a big female; very healthy looking! You were invited to enter our contest to guess the date and time of the arrival of the first salmon. The people who came closest are Greg and Hester Kitchen. They guessed August 7th at 10:30 a.m. Greg or Hester, please email us at janet.patterson@yec.ca or call us at (867) 393-5333 and we will arrange to get your prize to you. You have won $100 worth of Yukon Energy clothing and accessories. Thanks to everyone who entered the contest. If you can, please come to the fishladder and see the salmon. Or you can view them on our underwater fish camera.
Community Involvement, Energy Supply
Aug 14, 2012  Comment

More Dates for Public Consultation

We now have confirmed more community meetings to share a draft of our latest 20-year resource plan. We have scheduled meetings in early September in Carmacks, Faro, and Watson Lake. Visit our website for all the details. We hope to see you at one of the sessions, but if you can't make it, please contact us and we can speak with you on a one-on-one basis about the draft.
Community Involvement, Environment
Aug 16, 2012  Comment

Appreciation Night at the Fishladder

It was great to see so many people - and so many salmon - turn out for last night's Visitor Appreciation Night at our Whitehorse Rapids Fishladder. Thank you so much for your support.  Thanks as well to the Yukon Fish and Game Association. The group has been managing the fishladder for us for many years, and we think they do a great job.  Here are just a few images of the evening.

Community Involvement, Environment
Aug 27, 2012  2

It Takes a Channel to Raise a Family

As part of our commitment to the environment and our permitting requirements for the Mayo B project, we have constructed a salmon rearing channel in the lower Mayo River. The work has been taking place over the last couple of months and it’s now complete. The 1,000 metre long channel was designed to provide high quality fish habitat for juvenile Chinook salmon and other fish species. Water for the channel comes from the Mayo B plant and is available all year, even when the plant is not operating. The channel area will also include a foot trail with interpretive signage regarding the ecology and cultural history of the region. The trail should be accessible to the public starting next year. On its first day of operation several whitefish and grayling were already observed in several upstream pools. Once bugs start to populate the area we expect many salmon fry/fingerlings will make seasonal use of the channel.  The channel is not intended to provide habitat for spawning adult salmon, although we will monitor it for such occurrences. Below are some photos of the channel construction. 1) Channel construction with an excavator 2) Completed channel 3) Aerial of part of the channel (seen on the right side of the photo). Photo credit: Environmental Dynamics Inc.

Energy Supply
Aug 28, 2012  2

Testing Small-Scale Solar Technology

Our Whitehorse Rapids fishladder has a new addition. There's now an array of solar panels attached to the visitor building. This is a pilot project designed to test solar technology on a small (residential) scale. We will share the information we collect with Yukoners interested in exploring solar technology for their own homes. The panels are expected to produce on average 2,000 kilowatt hours a year, enough to power a substantial part of the fishladder visitor building. While the panels are up, this is still a work in progress. The next step is to install the dataloggers that will collect information about how much power is being generated at any given time. The fishladder visitor building uses on average 52 kilowatt hours a day, or almost 19 megawatt hours a year.  
Energy Supply
Sep 06, 2012  Comment

Updating You on our Southern Lakes Work

In keeping with our commitment to provide regular updates on our work to find new sources of renewable energy, we wanted to share this update with you on the Southern Lakes Enhancement Storage Concept. As always, we welcome your questions and comments.
Power Outage Updates
Sep 06, 2012  Comment

Last Night’s Power Outage

Yesterday's high winds were the cause of an outage last evening in several Yukon communities. The winds cause a tree to blow onto our line between Carmacks and Faro. Power went out around 6:15 p.m. in Faro, Dawson, Mayo, Elsa/Keno, Stewart Crossing, Ross River, Pelly Crossing, Drury Creek, Little Salmon, Moose Creek, Partridge Creek, and Deep Creek. Power was restored to most areas within an hour and a half (and much sooner in some communities) using back up diesel. The Faro mine, some Northwestel sites, and a few cottages at Drury Creek and Little Salmon remain without power. Crews are currently working to remove the tree, and all customers should be back on the hydro grid within the next hour. We apologize for the difficulties this outage may have caused.
News
Sep 20, 2012  Comment

Last Night’s Outage

 As you are likely aware, there was a Yukon-grid wide outage last night. Power went out just after 11 p.m. Most customers had power restored by 3 a.m. We are currently investigating the cause. We want to apologize for any difficulties this outage caused you. 
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.

News
Sep 20, 2012  Comment

Outage Update

 We can now confirm that last night's outage was because of a tree that blew on one of our lines in the Whitehorse area. The tree has been removed and our system is back to normal.

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