News

Construction season is here - what better time to think about back safety?  Have a look at this new Health & Safety Alert!

Hai Long Jiang, Design Group Senior Controls Engineer, and Mark Zarychanski, Design Group SCADA Engineer-in-Training, have successfully developed a PLC Test Lab. It is comprised of two, mobile 19-inch electrical equipment racks populated with Allen & Bradley PLC and communications equipment that is representative of what is currently in the field.

The PLC Test Lab will improve the quality of automation system configuration and programing for new and upgraded plant automation systems by reducing the number of errors experienced during on-site commissioning. Additionally, the PLC Test Lab will provide a platform for the design group engineers to improve the technical support given to field engineering personnel through the ability to perform in-house troubleshooting, testing, and resolution of systems problems reported.

The Lab will also facilitate the development of innovative plant automation programs or communication concepts for inclusion in future plant automation system designs.

Great work by the team in developing this tool that will help us continually improve plant automation systems.

The April 2019 edition of the all-Canadian Health, Wellness, and Safety Newsletter is here!  Inside this month’s issue you'll find articles on healthy eating, AED myths, roadway work, oral health facts and much more.  Have a read!

On Friday March 15th an epic battle unfolded as two historically callused foes took to the ice. The Updogs, dressed in blue, and the mix-matched jerseys of the Bottomfeeders spent an hour deciding who would become supreme. The cheers of family and friends could be heard across the town as pucks were slapped into the gravitating mitts of the goalies and into the patiently waitful mesh to their backs. Afterwards the teams shared in grub and cheer with their fans and signed some autographs... There may even be a Brad Budgell signed rookie card floating around somewhere.

If you want to see what other crazy, and I mean CRAZY, stuff the Hay River Social Committee has got going on you can check it out by clicking HERE... or HERE... or heck, why not HERE!

NTPC received acknowledgement of its assistance in recent efforts to battle a fire at the Hay River waste management facility. The article below appeared on My Yellowknife Now, the website of Moose FM.

A crew of four Yellowknife firefighters back from fighting the Hay River landfill fire say they are impressed with the community spirit and professionalism they witnessed.

Adam Chartrand, Christian Bittrolff, Mitch Stehr and Justin Zawyrucha were sent to assist the Hay River Fire Department in putting out a blaze burning at the dump since March 3rd. On the day they arrived Mackenzie Place caught fire, prompting the evacuation of 135 residents.

“When the Mackenzie fire came in, our phones started ringing with people from Yellowknife saying ‘Hey, are you guys at this?’ Bittrolff says. “We went down because we were worried there wasn’t enough staffing, they’d been fighting the dump fire for two weeks…But they came out in droves and Hay River fire handled that fire quite well.”

Zawyrucha says it was impressive, seeing local firefighters contain the fire in the 11th-floor apartment it originated in. The Yellowknife crew were struck by the dedication of the volunteer firefighters, who all took time away from their day jobs. “They’re sacrificing a ton of time and energy to fight that fire,” Zawyrucha says.

“The community is so welcoming and helpful,” Chartrand says. The Yellowknife crew were put up in housing supplied by Northwest Territories Power Corporation, given rides by random strangers and provided with more than enough food.

“In all honesty that’s one of the things that make you proud of being in the North. The whole community came together,” Bittrolff adds.

The role of the Yellowknife crew was to give Hay River crews a break, some of whom had been working on the dump fire for 22-hour days. They had experience fighting landfill fires in Yellowknife, but not to the magnitude of what Hay River was facing.

Bittrolff says the crew worked methodically – digging down 65 feet to get to where the garbage was burning, pulling it out and extinguishing it. Excavator crews worked 24 hours a day, taking the lead on digging out burning debris. Despite the labour intensive process, the Yellowknife group agree working with local firefighters went seamlessly.

Fire chief John Fredericks says a second crew of four is in Hay River now, they will likely be the last sent down.