Risk of brownouts: Alberta issues emergency alert urging to conserve electricity

The Government of Alberta has made an urgent plea to residents and businesses to conserve as much electricity as possible due to the risk of rolling power outages, also known as brownouts.

This comes as Alberta faces unprecedented demand on its electrical grid, with an extreme cold weather warning also in effect across the province.

“We are calling on all Albertans to reduce their electric demand immediately to essentials only. Extreme cold resulting in high power demand has put the province’s electricity grid at high risk of rotating outages tonight,” reads a statement by Nathan Neudorf, the Alberta Minister of Affordability and Utilities, shortly before 7 pm MST Saturday.

The precarious situation is also partly due to extreme cold weather conditions also leading to heightened electricity demand in the neighbouring provinces of British Columbia and Saskatchewan, which has impacted the ability of these jurisdictions to share more power with Alberta.

“The Alberta Electric System Operator has activated its emergency grid management plan to work with local distribution utilities to avoid potential rolling brownouts,” continues the statement.

“Albertans have a history of pulling together in times of emergency. If we all make small changes like those listed above, we can keep each other safe through another extremely cold evening.”

At around the same time, given the apparent urgency of the situation, this plea to conserve electricity was also made using Alberta’s emergency alert system on smartphones, televisions, and radios.

According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, overnight into Sunday morning, temperatures in Edmonton are expected to dip to a low of -35°C and as low as -50°C with windchill, while temperatures in Calgary will reach a low of -38°C and as low as -45°C with windchill. Similar conditions are expected to persist throughout much of next week.

All-time frigid temperature records were broken across Western Canada on Saturday, and Canadian locations were also amongst the coldest places on Earth, including an 11th place ranking for Edmonton International Airport.

The provincial government is urging residents and businesses to take the following measures immediately to conserve electricity: