The Energy Corporation is relying less on diesel fuel in the North Slave Region of the NWT this year

The Northwest Territories Power Corporation says people living in the North Slave region will get a lot more electricity from hydropower this winter.

Extremely low water levels on the Snare River from autumn 2022 have forced the Power Corporation to rely heavily on diesel fuel to generate electricity for Yellowknife, Bechoko, Detta and N’dilo.

Doug Prendergast, a spokesman for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation (NTPC), said he expects the corporation to generate 72 percent of North Slave’s electricity for the year by the end of March, with 28 percent coming from diesel and the rest from hydro. That’s based in part on forecasts for the coming winter, which Prendergast said he’s “cautiously optimistic about.”

The Snare system is a series of four hydroelectric plants that typically generate about 98 percent of the region’s electricity. Electricity generated by burning diesel fuel at the Jackfish Power Plant in Yellowknife is what makes the difference.

NTPC says almost half of the region’s electricity in 2022-2023 was generated by diesel.

Prendergast said NTPC is measuring various parameters to get an idea of ​​how much electricity will be generated from hydro and diesel in the coming year. This includes the snow cover around the River Snare in the spring and the amount of water flowing into the river at several different locations, as well as precipitation as the summer draws to a close.

According to him, these measurements show “various positive signs of rising water levels in the Snare River”. He also hopes that next year will be even better and that the northern slave will return to normal water levels.

But what awaits in the future amid a changing climate is unknown.

Robert Sexton, the territory’s energy director, said that’s one of the reasons the government is looking for a firm to upgrade 2016 study made from hydrology in North Slavs. The original study used historical data and found that low water levels occur about once every ten years, he said. He said the territory wants to add data from the last ten years — and with models of different climate scenarios that could unfold.

“Hydrology may change in the Northern Slave Region due to climate change,” he said. “It’s impossible to predict the future, but this time we’re going to look a little deeper.”

If climate change continues to cause low water levels in the PZT, Sexton said the area has options. Expansion of the Taltson hydro system, the project of the territory is tried to do for a long timewill connect the Northern and Southern subordinate energy systems and allow each of them to serve as a backup for the other.

Sexton said the territory could also consider expanding hydro generation elsewhere, using liquefied natural gas, or developing a long-term strategy — essentially collecting a small amount of money from customers — that could be used to ease the shock of occasional low water levels if they occur. about every decade.

As of spring 2023, Southern Slavery also relies on diesel-generated electricity. That’s because the Taltson hydro plant that serves the region undergoing major renovation.