Resuming Secondary Sales

There's good news for 13 Yukon businesses and government departments. A surplus of available water for electrical generation has allowed us to once again offer our Secondary Sales Program for a short period this summer and fall. The program will be available starting tomorrow and will run until approximately October 1, 2011.

The initiative began in 1998. It gives eligible Yukon businesses the option of using hydro power to heat their facilities instead of diesel fuel or propane, both of which are more expensive and generate greenhouse gas emisisions. They pay two-thirds of the cost of heating with diesel fuel, in exchange for the service being limited and fully interruptible. They are required to maintain a back-up heating system for use when Secondary Sales are not available.

Last September, low water at the Aishihik and Mayo hydro facilities forced us to indefinitely suspend our wholesale Secondary Sales to Yukon Electrical Company Limited (YECL). Secondary Sales were also suspended to our retail customer, the Mayo school. However this summer all our reservoirs are essentially full and we have more water than we need for power production. That's why we can offer the program for the next several weeks. It means businesses and governments can see some savings on their energy bills, and we can make efficient use of our capacity to produce electricity and receive some financial benefit instead of just seeing the water being spilled.