'Unplanned thermal generation outage' among issues leading to Alberta grid alert

The Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) declared a grid alert for the province on Monday evening, with officials saying a number of faults led to the bulletin.

The alert appeared on AESO's feed on X Monday evening.

AESO, in a statement to CTV News, said the problem resulted from several outages in its system.

"This evening, 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 grid alert," said Kailyn Park, AESO communications advisor, in an email.

"We were not close to rotating outages."

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Parks said the peak usage on Monday was 11,599 megawatts.

On its website, AESO says it "issues a grid alert when the power system is under stress and we're preparing to use emergency reserves to meet demand and maintain system reliability."

Parks said consumers can also relieve the burden on the system by making smart choices.

"All Albertans can play a role by minimizing electricity use from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. when we expect the highest demand each day," she said.

"In addition to helping conserve energy during this peak period, Albertans can also take action throughout the day by closing window coverings, lowering thermostats to pre-cool homes, avoiding using major appliances and charging electric devices."

Additional conservation tips can be found online.