The cold snap is due to end today but caused significant damage over the weekend.
There have been water main breaks and several power grid warnings throughout the province.
Jason Drenth, the electricity utility general manager for the City of Lethbridge explained, “Because of the cold we set record demand across the province on the weekend, with that cold and from what (the Alberta Electric System Operator) reported there was a lack of wind and a lack of solar because it was dark.
“We ran into a capacity shortfall within the province.”
Drenth went on to explain that the province has generators throughout the province and that energy gets passed through the transmission system, to the distributors who then send it to the homes and businesses.
“Lethbridge is part of the transmission and distribution parts of the chain. The problem from this past weekend was not with Lethbridge or with the two parts they represent, it was with generation. We simply weren’t making enough energy for what the consumer (the houses and businesses),” he said.
In fact, according to AESO’s data, when the emergency alert was released there was a 4 percent drop in usage in Lethbridge. The all-time peak for Lethbridge is 192 megawatts set in the summer. This past week Lethbridge peaked at 146 megawatts.
Although the City of Lethbridge had an emergency plan prepared, thankfully they didn’t have to put it into action.
“Saturday night was the closest one, where we were close to shedding load,” said Drenth.
“Here in the city of Lethbridge, we had no problem meeting demand, but the supply we get from the province was running short so we implemented a plan put it in place that if needed, if AESO gave us direction, we would shed load, put people in the dark for 30-minute rotations until the emergency was over.”
The cold also influenced water services, which affected 43 houses and eight businesses in these three areas:
- The 400 block of 5th Street South.
- The 800 block of 6th Street South
- The 800 block of 7th Street South.
Thanks to the harrowing work of the crews, a potentially dangerous situation for the public was resolved. Some worked 16 hours in frigid conditions.
Leanne Lammertsen with the water and wastewater operations with the City of Lethbridge explained the fixes required.
“In all three cases we put a repair clamp around the crack, backfilled and turned the water back on,” she said.
In any future event where a water main is turned off in any neighborhood, Lammertsen recommends that people bucket and pale water to cook, clean, use for toilets and eat with before the water is shut off.
If the shut-off is prolonged, there will be a tanker truck brought in to give water to those who need it.
Water service resumed for those affected Saturday night.
Chinook High School closed Monday and cancelled all classes due to flooding.
It was so cold that even the clock tower downtown stopped working.
The city says they are bracing for additional water main breaks and have plans in place for when they occur, due to fluctuation in temperatures.
Comments