BC Hydro & Fortis break power demand records during ongoing cold snap

Saturday again saw Hydro in high demand, with just under 11,000 megawatts needed at peak.

Despite the high demand, Hydro’s network wasn’t strenuously tested with Olynyk mentioning B.C.’s grid exported hundreds of megawatts to both Alberta and states in the Pacific Northwest who experienced high demand and delivery issues.

“We build our system to have capacity to meet the coldest day of the year we anticipate for the province. Certainly the system we have now clearly was able to do that, that’s how we manage our system and we had some left over and we were able to help out of neighbours.”

Olynyk added while there were no major outages linked directly to the cold in the region, “cold load pickup” can cause major headaches.

He said power can be tripped again after an outage if people request too much, too soon.

Hydro asks anyone in an outage to unplug all but a couple of things, including something like a lamp or appliance which will help them know when power has been restored, then gradually add electronics over time.

Between 15 to 20 minutes is ideal to limit consumption, before going back up to normal use.

Fortis BC also saw record demand, providing 21,763 megawatts at the highest point of demand on Friday night, breaking a December 2022 mark by nearly 400 megawatts.

The demand was roughly three times what Fortis would typically see on a winter evening.

Spokesperson Diana Sorace said their system works in tandem with the electricity grid to ensure everyone has the power they need.

“We prepare for these cold snaps so that people have the energy that they need to keep their homes warm, to cook their food and boil their water. Even though it was very, very cold, the energy system worked at its highest capacity to meet that demand.”

Planning takes place year-round, according to Sorace, to ensure enough energy is available during the peak winter months.

She said their network across Vancouver Island allows for scenarios like last weekend.

“We plan for cold snaps, it’s something we experience every year and we rely on storing large volumes of energy in preparation, whether that’s in a dedicated gas storage such as an LNG facility. We have one on Vancouver Island, the Mt. Hayes facility.”

Sorace also said Fortis customers can help with the reliability of the natural gas network by ensuring they’re using gas effectively, through regularly serviced and high-efficiency appliances.

Programmable thermostats, or even just wearing a sweater while at home and keeping inside a little cooler, can make a big difference.

Environment Canada records indicate Nanaimo Airport set new daily records for the lowest maximum temperature on Friday, with -6.3 degrees Celsius recorded. It broke the 1950 mark of -5.6.

The overnight low on Friday of -14.8 degrees broke a 1998 mark of -10.3 while Saturday night also entered the record books by dipping to -15.8 degrees, beating a 1950 record of -13.9.

— with files from Jon De Roo, 97.3 The Eagle

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by Alex Rawnsley

BC Hydro & Fortis break power demand records during ongoing cold snap

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