Report recommends replacing two older generators

The Qulliq Energy Corp. was not to blame for a massive power outage that plunged Rankin Inlet into darkness for two weeks this past February, according to an independent review commissioned by the utility.

Three of the Rankin Inlet power plant's four generators failed within six days of one another, but the report says QEC staff did a good job coping with the incident, which forced Rankin Inlet mayor Lorne Kusugak to declare a state of emergency.

"This occurrence should not be interpreted as reflecting poorly on the operating or maintenance practices at the QEC Rankin Inlet generating plant," stated the report, written by Randy North, an engineer with British Columbia Hydro.

"The normally high reliability of supply achieved by local staff is indicated by the fact that there have only been a few short duration outages over the past several years."

The trouble started Feb. 14, when the plant's 1450-kilowatt G5 generator was taken out of service because of an internal water leak.

Five days later, the largest generator, the 2150-kilowatt G6 "suffered a mechanical failure resulting in extensive internal damage" and the 920-kilowatt G4 generator was shut down due to a coolant leak.

That prompted Qulliq to put G5 back into service. The next day, G5 failed, suffering extensive damage. That forced QEC to put Rankin Inlet on rolling blackouts, with just one 920-kw generator in service.

G5 and G6 are newer generators and suffered mechanical problems sooner than expected.

"The catastrophic failure of G6 [purchased in 2003]… was an extremely rare occurrence," North wrote.

The report, in part, recommends:

• replacing the plant's two older 920-kilowatt generators;
• QEC install a better process for operations staff to request services from the utility's engineers;
• better documentation and more staff to improve the maintenance program which is currently "heavily reliant on the knowledge and expertise of the maintenance team;"
• a more extensive system of alerts to tell staff when the system is overloading; and
• that QEC keep two 500-kilowatt generators ready to transport to communities with power problems.

Anne Crawford, Qulliq's president, said the recommendations will go before the company's board at a meeting in June. She added it's too early to say which of the report's recommendations QEC will implement.

"[North has] done a really good job and I suspect most of them will be implemented, but we haven't had that meeting yet," she said.