Asian Tribune Your Multilingual Newspaper covering World and local news News
For the second time this week, the Alberta Electric System Operator issued a grid alert for the province on Friday, and the provincial capital briefly faced rotating power outages.
“The AESO has declared a grid alert as of 6:49 a.m. due to tight supply,” the non-profit organization posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Friday morning.
“Generation is slowly coming online, and we expect conditions to return to normal by 10 a.m.”
At 11:18 a.m., an AESO spokesperson told Global News the grid alert had ended and that “system conditions have returned to normal.”
Shortly after 9 a.m., the utility provider Epcor posted on social media that AESO had directed it to “help manage power consumption in the province.”
“Rotating outages are now in effect in (Edmonton).”
At 9:34 a.m., Epcor tweeted that “rotating outages have now stopped” after AESO ended its directive to the provider.
Enmax Power tweeted that a number of Calgary neighbourhoods could see power disruptions on Friday morning as a result of the AESO directive.
On Wednesday night, AESO issued a grid alert for the province “due to unexpected generation loss.” Forty-two minutes after it announced it had issued that grid alert, AESO posted on social media that it had lifted it.
Global News reached out to AESO for a statement after the alert was issued Friday morning.
“We are back into a tight supply situation this morning due to multiple generators being offline, low wind generation, and solar not yet producing any significant megawatts this morning,” Diane Kossman, a spokesperson for AESO, wrote in an email. “We have thermal generation coming online but it is slower than anticipated.
“On Wednesday, we had a large thermal generating unit unexpectedly drop off during evening peak, which meant we had to go into emergency reserves to meet demand and maintain system reliability.”
Kossman added there are “multiple generators returning to service today, which should alleviate any ongoing concerns.”
Premier Danielle Smith posted about the grid alert on X at 10:18 a.m. on Friday.
“This is the second grid alert issued in recent days, and while contributing factors vary, we recognize this may be alarming to some Albertans,” she tweeted. “Minister of Affordability and Utilities Nathan Neudorf continues to work closely with AESO to understand the situation and ensure appropriate measures are taken.
“Our government is committed to protecting Alberta’s grid and ensuring our province continues to generate reliable baseload power both now and in the future.”
On its website, AESO offers energy conservation tips for Albertans, especially for peak hours of consumption. The organization says it issues grid alerts “when the power system is under stress and we’re preparing to use emergency reserves to meet demand and maintain system reliability.”
When that happens, Albertans are asked to reduce their electricity use to help reduce the chance of more serious action being taken in response to a grid alert, such as a rotating power outage.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.