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:


Communications and Community Relations
Phone: (867) 393-5398
Email: communications@yec.yk.ca

Community Involvement, Energy Supply
Jan 03, 2012  Comment

Round Two of Our Southern Lakes Workshops

Before Christmas we hosted two workshops in Marsh Lake that focussed on the Marsh Lake Storage Concept. We have two more planned for late this month and early next. WORKSHOP 3: Erosion Effects The purpose of this workshop is to provide technical information about potential shoreline erosion in relation to the enhanced storage concept. Saturday, January 21, 2012 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Marsh Lake Community Centre WORKSHOP 4: Aquatics and Terrestrial Effects The purpose of this workshop is to provide technical information about the existing Southern Lakes ecosystem in relation to current water management, and to discuss the potential effects of aquatic and terrestrial species and habitats in relation to the enhanced storage concept. Saturday, February 4, 2012 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Marsh Lake Fire Hall Door prizes, food and refreshments will be provided at all workshops. We are offering free transportation to Carcross and Tagish residents wishing to attend either of these workshops. To arrange a ride or for more information, call (867) 393-5333, email communications@yukonenergy.ca, or send us a note through this blog.
Power Outage Updates
Jan 03, 2012  Comment

Outage in Keno

For those in Keno City who are currently experiencing a power outage, please know that we are doing everything we can to restore service to you. We have a crew flying over the Elsa line right now to try to find the problem. Also, we are assisting your service provider, Yukon Electrical Company Limited, by delivering another stand-by generator to your community. It should be there by mid-afternoon today. One way or another, you should have power restored within the next few hours.
Power Outage Updates
Jan 04, 2012  Comment

Update on the Outage at Keno

It has been a difficult few days for people in Elsa and Keno. They have had a lengthy outage earlier this week, and a shorter one this morning. While the power is back on, we understand their frustration, and we want to apologize to them for these outages. Here is some information to help you understand what has happened over the last few days. Be aware that Yukon Energy transmits the power to Elsa and Keno, and Yukon Electrical Company Ltd. distributes it to customers there (apart from the Alexco mine, which is Yukon Energy's customer). Both utilities have worked closely together to get power restored. Yukon Electrical Company brought in a stand-by diesel generator to Keno, but when it didn't function as it should have, Yukon Energy was able to offer one of our own back-up generators. We used it this morning to get the lights back on in Keno. In terms of the transmission line, we believe the problem was caused by heavy snow; there have been snow storms in the area over the last several days. We flew the line yesterday and couldn't find anything else that could have been the culprit. We are flying the line again today, this time using fault detectors to help us troubleshoot. They are devices that can be hung on sections of the line and will flash when there is a fault. They help us pinpoint a problem. Again, we want to apologize to residents and businesses that have been affected by these outages and to assure you we are working as diligently as we can to get the transmission system restored to proper working order.
Safety
Jan 05, 2012  Comment

Preparing for Winter Power Outages

This week's power outages in Elsa and Keno prompted us to take another look a booklet we produced a few years ago in cooperation with the Yukon government's Emergency Measures Organization. This booklet focuses on what to do during winter power outages, but it will prepare you for a range of situations with the aim of lessening the negative impacts on your and your family. Please take the time to give it a read, and share it with others who you think could benefit from the information.
Power Outage Updates
Jan 05, 2012  Comment

Cause of the Elsa/Keno Outage

We reported yesterday that we were flying our transmission line between Mayo and Keno yesterday to try to determine the cause of the most recent outage. We did that, and as suspected, we found that heavy snow was the culprit. We were helped in our sleuthing by an employee of the Alexco mine, who reported seeing a flash of light on the line near the minesite. We inspected the area, and found that heavy snow had pressed a conduction down onto a crossarm on one of our poles, causing the outage. We cleared the snow from the conduction and returned it to its proper position, and it is now working as it should. We re-energized the line at 2:12 yesterday afternoon and the Alexco mine had power very shortly after that. We kep the residents of Keno on our back-up generator as a precautionary measure and they remain on diesel for now. We are watching the weather forecasts and will make a decision soon about whether to put Keno back onto our grid.
Community Involvement
Jan 06, 2012  Comment

Delivering the Cheque

Yukon Energy's Shelley Dixon (left) presented a cheque yesterday to Shelley Cuthbert, vice-president of the Humane Society Yukon. The money, just over $7,800, will be used to help the Mae Bachur Animal Shelter. Thank you to everyone who participated in our 'like us on Facebook' campaign. For every person who liked us during December, we donated $1 to the shelter, plus we topped it up with money from our Corporate Contributions budget.   Photo credit: www.archbould.com  
Community Involvement
Jan 11, 2012  Comment

Superstar!

Are you a closet performer? Now's your chance to let that talent shine. Yukon Energy is sponsoring a new event at this year's Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous Festival. It's a variety show called "Superstar" and it's taking place on Feb. 23rd, at the Yukon Arts Centre in Whitehorse. It's a chance for Yukoners to showcase their emerging talents, and possibly win some prize money. If you're interested, you will need to submit an audition video to the Rendezvous Society by February 1st. A panel of judges will choose up to fifteen acts to perform at the talent show. The competition is open to all Yukon residents thirteen years and older. If you'd like to know more, visit the Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous Festival's website.
Energy Supply
Jan 11, 2012  Comment

Is Liquefied Natural Gas an Energy Option for Yukon?

Yukon  Energy is looking into the possibility of using Liquefied Natural Gas to transition from diesel to renewable energy options. We'd like you to join us for a open and frank discussion on this subject. You're invited to a public meeting next Wednesday, January 18th from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Gold Rush Inn (Town Hall Room) in Whitehorse. There'll be presentations from LNG experts and you'll have a chance to ask questions and share your views. We hope you can join us. Call 393-5333 for more information.  
Community Involvement
Jan 12, 2012  Comment

Countdown to the Games

Yukon Energy is sponsoring the Dene Games and Arctic Sports portion of this year's Arctic Winter Games, which are taking place in Whitehorse from March 4th to 10th. As a lead-up to the games, we thought it would be fun to run a contest to test your knowledge of the games. At stake are some free event tickets and limited edition trading pin sets. To participate in the contest you must first 'like' us on our Facebook page. Here's how the contest will work: we'll ask one trivia question a week. Post your answer in the comment section of the status update, and if you are correct, your name will go into a hat for a prize. We'll draw one name each week. All answers must be in to us by noon on Friday, and we'll announce the winner that afternoon. This week's trivia question has already been posted on our Facebook page. Please go take a look, and good luck!
Energy Supply
Jan 12, 2012  Comment

LNG Public Meeting Reminder

This is a reminder about a public meeting we have planned for next Wednesday evening. Yukon Energy is looking into using liquefied natural gas to transition from diesel to renewable energy options. You are invited to join us for a frank and open discussion on this subject: Wednesday January 18, 2012 Gold Rush Inn (Town Hall Room), Whitehorse 7 - 9 p.m. There'll be presentations from LNG experts plus you'll have a chance to ask questions and share your views. You might be interested in reading the background paper that has been prepared on this subject.
Energy Supply
Jan 16, 2012  Comment

Near-Record Breaking Energy Consumption

With Yukon in an Arctic freeze, we are producing almost 80 megawatts of electricity this morning! We haven't seen those kinds of numbers since the Faro mine was in production in the late 1990s. But there's some good news. Because we are running our new Mayo B powerhouse plus the new hydro generator at our Aishihik plant (Aishihik 3), we are only having to use diesel to generate about six megawatts of power. Without those two new renewable projects, we'd be faced with generating more than 15 megawatts of diesel-generated power.  
Community Involvement, Energy Supply
Jan 19, 2012  Comment

LNG Workshop Presentations

Thanks to everyone who attended yesterday's workshop and public meeting on Liquefied Natural Gas. If you weren't able to be there, all the presentations along with a background paper can be found on our website.
Energy Conservation
Jan 25, 2012  Comment

Walking the Talk

As demand for electricity continues to grow in Yukon, we have been promoting energy conservation and efficiencies. We have encouraged all Yukoners to be conscious of how much power they are using, and to conserve where possible. But of course we need to walk the talk, so we’ve just had our own internal energy audit done. We hired an independent firm to conduct an audit of our Whitehorse office, Whitehorse diesel and hydro plants, Dawson office, and Dawson diesel plant.   Before the audit was done we compiled all of our electricity and fuel usage on a monthly basis for each building, along with information about building envelope, floor area and occupancy, lighting, heating and cooling, control systems and process loads (i.e. block heaters for the diesels, fuel tank heating, spillway gate heating, etc.) The auditors then conducted site visits and measured things such as heat loss from the buildings, lighting levels, heating system performance and system operation. We expect to receive the completed report shortly and then will take some time to review it with an eye to the costs and energy savings of making certain modifications to our facilities. Next we would implement various measures. Stay tuned for updates very soon about how Yukon Energy will conserve electricity. Photo: testing lighting levels in the Whitehorse diesel plant. Photo credit: www.archbould.com
Energy Supply
Feb 01, 2012  Comment

The End Product

Our newly completed Mayo B hydro plant is now feeding power into our transmission grid. Here are some pictures of the inside of the new power plant. Photo credit: www.archbould.com.  Photo #1 is an overview of the plant, showing the two hydro generators and turbines (the turbines in royal blue and the generators a greenish-blue colour). Photo #2 is of one of the intakes that allows water to come from an underground pipe (known as the penstock) to the turbine.

Community Involvement, Energy Supply
Feb 03, 2012  Comment

A Reminder About Tomorrow’s Workshop

A reminder that tomorrow we are holding another in a series of workshops on the Marsh Lake/Southern Lakes Enhanced Storage Concept. The purpose of this workshop is to provide technical information about the existing Southern Lakes ecosystem and to discuss the potential effects of the storage concept on aquatic and terrestrial species and habitats. Saturday, February 4, 2012 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Marsh Lake Fire Hall Door prizes, food and refreshments will be provided. We are offering free transportation to Carcross and Tagish residents wishing to attend. To arrange a ride or for more information, call (867) 393-5333 by 4 p.m. this afternoon or email communications@yukonenergy.ca.

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