Alberta sets electricity record during polar vortex-induced cold snap | 24CA News
The near-record Arctic temperatures which have taken maintain in Alberta additionally led to the province setting one other report in all-time demand for electrical energy. And one other near-record day is predicted.
On Thursday at round 6 p.m., the brand new hourly peak demand report was set at 12,384 megawatts (MW), beating a earlier report of 12,193 MW set in December 2022.
The Alberta Energy System Operator (AESO) stated that new report was primarily based on power necessities from industrial, industrial, agricultural and residential customers.
“We typically hit our peak load periods in the winter when furnaces are running hard, block heaters are plugged in and space heaters are going,” Leif Sollid, AESO supervisor of communications, stated Friday.
All of Alberta is at present beneath an excessive chilly warning, with temperatures properly under -30 C and wind chill under -40, due to a polar vortex.
Sollid stated Alberta’s power grid was capable of meet the demand on Thursday with none hiccups.
“We had sufficient supply available on hand, and one of the key factors there was we had a lot of wind power on the system last night, which was a big, big help to us,” he stated. “Today, wind has fallen off dramatically, which is kind of what we typically see when we get an Arctic high like this, a polar vortex, we get very little wind. And so today, our big challenge on the grid is that we have so little wind.”
He additionally famous that on Friday, one pure gasoline generator was down for scheduled upkeep and one other had a weather-related outage, leading to a “very tight” electrical energy market.
Friday’s forecasted highs throughout the province didn’t have the mercury getting a lot over -30 C, persevering with to place demand on the grid to assist maintain properties and companies heat and working.
Sollid stated the AESO has an “excellent track record” of assembly demand in all climate situations and hasn’t had transmission-level outages since 2013.
In more difficult situations like this week, the AESO can scale back exports of electrical energy, can ask industrial customers to curtail their utilization and the system operator has backup reserves of about 600 MW to make use of in grid alert conditions.
But residential customers may also assist out.
AESO stated peak grid demand 12 months spherical is normally between 4 p.m. and seven p.m. – the supper hour.
“It’s when people are coming home, cooking dinner, perhaps, doing laundry, running their dishwasher, those sorts of activities,” Sollid stated.
The AESO stated delaying operating a dishwasher or doing laundry till later within the night, turning off lights whereas not utilizing them and placing a automobile block heater on a timer over that supper hour can assist the province throughout weather-related instances of excessive electrical energy demand.
“Small things like that taken across the province can really help us just reduce demand a little bit. And that could make all the difference to get us over that peak period,” Sollid stated.
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