A critical exigency alert was issued on Saturday evening, urging Albertans to reduce electricity usage to mitigate potential outages across the province.
In an alert transmitted around 6:36 p.m., the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) stated that an extreme cold wave was causing high power demand throughout the province, posing a significant risk of rotating power outages. Albertans were asked to immediately limit their electricity use to essential needs only, turning off unnecessary lights and electrical appliances. AESO also requested people to minimize the use of space heaters and postpone the use of major power-consuming appliances.
Nathan Neudorf, Alberta’s minister of affordability and serviceability, emphasized the need for all Albertans to promptly reduce their electric demand to essentials. He explained, “Extreme cold, leading to high power demand, has elevated the province’s electricity grid to a high risk of rotating outages tonight.”
Leif Sollid, director of dispatches for AESO, mentioned that the strain on the power grid had significantly decreased since the alert was issued. However, he advised that Albertans should continue to reduce their electricity usage as much as possible during this time. “Rotating outages are really a matter of last resort,” Sollid stated, adding that they had issued a grid alert at 3:30 p.m., signaling the use of provisional reserves to meet the exceptionally high demand. The next step, if demand couldn’t be met, would be rotating outages—short-duration power interruptions across the province lasting approximately 30 minutes. Sollid reassured that it seemed unnecessary to take that step on the current night.
This alert followed AESO’s grid alert around 3:30 p.m. the same day due to extreme cold, high electricity demand, and low reserves. A similar grid alert was issued on Friday due to “high power demand caused by an extreme cold wave, two large natural gas generator outages, and very low renewable power on the system.”
The entire province is under an extreme cold warning, with temperatures below -30°C and a wind chill of -40°C due to a polar vortex. On Thursday, around 6 p.m., a new hourly peak demand record was set at 12,384 megawatts (MW), surpassing the previous record of 12,193 MW set in December 2022. AESO attributed this new record to energy consumption from industrial, commercial, agricultural, and residential users.
