Energy is what keeps NWT homes warm, lights on, our industry active, and daily life moving. But how we get that energy, and how it’s produced, delivered, and priced, is very different from other places in Canada.

In the NWT, energy comes from many sources: heating oil, propane, gasoline, diesel, biomass, hydroelectricity, solar, and wind. Most of the energy people use every day is for heating buildings and powering vehicles, while electricity is a smaller part of the overall picture – but essential for lighting, appliances, and community services.

Small, remote, and spread-out communities make for a fragmented energy system in the NWT. Fuels must be shipped long distances, electricity systems are not connected to each other, and some communities rely fully on diesel while others use hydro for their power needs. All of this affects costs, reliability, and how we plan for the future.

This page explains the basics: what energy is, how electricity fits into it, and why the NWT’s unique system makes things more complex and costly than in the south.