Arviat to suffer outages all week, Nunavut power utility says

QEC crews are working to repairing mechanical issues at Arviat’s power plant, pictured here, which caused rolling blackouts in the Hudson Bay community this week. (PHOTO BY ERIC ANOEE)

(Updated at 12:20 p.m.)

The Qulliq Energy Corp. is asking residents of Arviat to conserve power while it deals with “technical issues” at the community’s power plant.

The QEC notified the west Hudson Bay hamlet Nov. 10 that one of its four generators had gone down, while another generator was already out of service while undergoing maintenance.

By late afternoon Nov. 10, the community of 2,300 was experiencing rolling blackouts.

In a message to residents posted on social media, the hamlet now says Arviat’s power plant won’t be back up to full power for at least another four days.

“Everyone is asked to conserve power until the plant is fully restored, especially during the lunch hour and [from] 5:00 to 7:00 p.m as these are peak times,” the hamlet said.

The temperature in Arviat this week has hovered at around -7 degrees Celsius, with strong wind gusts and flurries.

In a Nov. 12 email to Nunatsiaq News, the QEC said there was a mechanical failure in one of the generators, which crews fixed early Nov. 12. But the power utility said it will continue to monitor Arviat’s generators.

The QEC also advised residents of Sanikiluaq they would experience rolling blackouts while a maintenance crew restores full power at that community’s power plant.

Early Nov. 12, the power corporation also said on Twitter that they’ve completed repairs at the Baker Lake power plant, which the day before had suffered “partial and periodical outages” due to a “technical issue.”