Media Releases
Jul 25, 2012
Yukon Energy Seeks Input on 20-Year Resource Plan
After extensive consultation and discussion with governments, stakeholders and the public, Yukon Energy has completed a draft of its updated 20-year resource plan. It is now taking the draft to Yukoners for input. Then the document will be revised based on feedback from the public and will be submitted to the Yukon Utilities Board (YUB).
“In 2006, the last time Yukon Energy developed a 20-year resource plan, our approach with regard to public consultation was fairly conventional. We shared the plan with the public, but only once it was a finished document that had been filed with the YUB,” Yukon Energy president David Morrison said.
“Since that time, we have made a conscious and fundamental change in our approach to planning. We sought input from First Nation and other governments, stakeholders and the public before we had determined any of the content of this latest resource plan,” Morrison added.
The input came through meetings, workshops, a three-day energy planning charrette held in March 2011, and follow-up mini-charrettes that focused on specific potential energy options.
Among other things, the charrette participants helped Yukon Energy formulate four principles around which to base future energy decisions: reliability, affordability, flexibility and environmental responsibility.
“These these four principles became our lens through which we considered all possible energy options for this resource plan draft,” Morrison said.
The document outlines both near-term and longer-term energy options. Near-term possibilities include energy conservation/efficiencies, hydro enhancements such as Southern Lakes Enhanced Winter Storage, liquefied natural gas, wood biomass, and wind.
Longer-term options outlined in the draft include new hydro, geothermal, solar, liquefied natural gas from local sources, and a grid connection to British Columbia or Alaska.
Yukon Energy plans to visit several Yukon communities over the next few weeks to hear people’s views on the draft document.
On a go-forward basis Yukon Energy is committed to the idea of ‘planning in public’. The corporation will continue engaging Yukoners on issues related to the territory’s energy future.
To learn more you are invited to read a summary of the 20-Year Resource Plan draft and a more comprehensive and detailed overview of the plan. The complete document is available upon request (note that it is a very large file).
Contact:
Janet Patterson
Supervisor, Communications
Yukon Energy Corporation
(867) 393-5333
janet.patterson@yec.yk.ca
