Customers wonÂ’t pay blackout costs
The accord offered Islanders an average 14 per cent drop in their electricity bills, but there is also a provision to pass extra costs on to customers if there's a catastrophic event.
"The outages weren't significant enough to warrant this," said vice-president of corporate planning and energy supply John Gaudet.
"The power was restored in some cases in 20 minutes to customers. And the amount of generation that was required was relatively small. We do build in a certain amount of provisional fuel, if you will, to accommodate such circumstances. So, so far so good."
Maritime Electric did incur some extra costs during the blackout, burning fuel in on-Island generators, which is more expensive than the imported electricity it relies on most of the time.
Gaudet said costs would have to go much higher for it to be considered a catastrophic event. Maritime Electric has budgeted for a certain number of outages under the accord.
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Modular nuclear reactors a 'long shot' worth studying, says Yukon gov't
WHITEHORSE - The Yukon government is looking for ways to reduce the territory's emissions, and wondering if nuclear power is one way to go.
The territory is undertaking a feasibility study, to determine whether there's a future for SMRs — small modular reactors — as a low-emissions alternative to things such as diesel power.
The idea, said John Streicker, Yukon's minister of energy, mines and resources, is to bring the SMRs into the Yukon to generate electricity.
"Even the micro ones, you could consider in our remote communities or wherever you've got a point load of energy demand," Streicker said. "Especially electricity demand."
SMRs…
