“With high temperatures expected to remain for the rest of the week, pulling up demand — we remain alert, as always, to the ever-changing environment and are prepared to respond. ”
The operator of Alberta’s power grid says an outage at power plant combined with the impact of hot weather on generation as well as an issue with a transmission line all combined to prompt it to issue a grid alert Monday night.
The Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) issued the grid alert at 8:25 p.m. Monday that lasted for 69 minutes, until 9:34 p.m. after it says system conditions returned to normal.
AESO says it issues grid alerts when the province’s power system is under stress and demand begins to exceed supply, prompting a reliance on a supply cushion of energy.
In a statement, the organization said Monday night’s alert was due to several factors.
“An unplanned thermal generation outage, high temperatures causing a reduction in some generator capability, and a line outage that impacted import capability contributed to the supply shortfall that caused the alert,” it reads.
It goes on to state the demand peak on Monday was 11,599 megawatts. It states it used about 20 per cent of contingency reserves, or 114 megawatts out of 545 megawatts of reserve supply.
It goes on to note that a grid alert does not mean that rotating outages are imminent.
“We were not close to rotating outages on July 8.”
“With high temperatures expected to remain for the rest of the week, pulling up demand — we remain alert, as always, to the ever-changing environment and are prepared to respond. ”
The alert came amid a series of higher-than-normal temperatures across Alberta as well as B.C. and parts of the Northwest Territories.
The organization stated electricity demand is highest between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. and asked Albertans to conserve electricity throughout the day by closing window coverings, lowering thermostats earlier in the day to pre-cool homes, and avoid using major appliances and charging electric devices.
The province said the cold temperatures limited electricity imports from neighbouring provinces and states.
Edmonton remains under a heat warning Tuesday with Environment Canada forecasting temperatures to approach 36 C on Wednesday before cooling down into the high 20s Thursday and Friday.