Alberta’s electrical grid recovers after extreme cold prompts threat of rolling power outages

A "high risk" of rotating power outages has eased in Alberta after an emergency alert was issued on Saturday night.

High power demand caused by the extreme cold is putting pressure on the grid, said the emergency alert that remains active.

At 6:44 p.m. MT, the Alberta Emergency Management Agency (AEMA) urged Albertans to turn off unnecessary lights, avoid cooking with a stove and delay charging electric vehicles. Residents were asked to immediately reduce electricity use to essentials only.

The Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) ended the grid alert — meaning the power system is under stress and preparations were underway to use emergency reserves to meet demand and maintain reliability — for the system just before 9 p.m. MT.

Environment Canada extreme cold warnings were in effect across all of Alberta on Saturday night. Temperatures are expected to reach -40 C to -50 C by Sunday morning for many parts of the province, said the warnings.

The province's energy grid had as little as 10 megawatts in reserve power at one point on Saturday night, per the AESO supply demand report. That number jumped to 404 megawatts at around 7:45 p.m. MT.

Saskatchewan offered to provide electricity

Following the alert, total power consumption declined across the province to 11,187 MW at 7:45 p.m. MT.

The emergency alert came just hours after the AESO declared a grid alert due to extreme cold, high demand and low imports.

Alberta imports some of its electricity from other provinces, but extreme weather in other western provinces is impacting their ability to share, according to a statement from Minister of Affordability and Utilities Nathan Neudorf.

AESO's supply demand report indicated Alberta was receiving 239 MW from B.C., Saskatchewan and Montana on Saturday night.

However, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that SaskPower was planning to provide 153 MW of electricity to Alberta on Saturday evening to "assist them through this shortage."

Alberta all-time power record set this week

It comes as Alberta set an all-time provincial record for power demand on Thursday evening as extreme cold weather blanketed the province. At 6 p.m. that day, total demand hit an hourly peak of 12,384 megawatts of electricity, beating Alberta's last hourly peak power demand record of 12,192 megawatts set on Dec. 21, 2022 during a previous cold snap.

Another grid alert was issued on Friday due to high power demand caused by the extreme cold, two natural gas generator outages and very low renewable power on the system.

Leif Sollid, communications manager for the AESO, says the surge in electricity demand doesn't come as a shock.

"Furnaces are running nonstop in people's homes,… block heaters being plugged in, people using space heaters — all of those things that are above and beyond our normal daily power consumption," said Sollid.

He says they're watching things "very closely."

What's up with the grid?

When it comes to the power demand on the grid, conditions are going to be "tight," Sollid told CBC News in an interview on Friday.

Nonetheless, Sollid says they're well equipped for all the challenges that the extreme cold brings.

"I think it's important that Albertans understand we have very highly trained system controllers who monitor and manage the grid in real time, they see the entire grid second to second," he said.

"There's a lot of technology and training at their disposal to keep the lights on in Alberta, and they've done a very successful job at that over the years. We're counting on their work."