BC breaks record for power usage during extreme cold and sends help to Alberta

BC has broken a record for power usage as the cold snap continues and also managed to send help to Alberta as that province dealt with record-breaking cold weather.

According to a release from BC Hydro on Sunday afternoon, the extreme cold temperatures across BC drove the peak hourly electricity demand to a record high on Friday night — reaching 11,300 megawatts.

The low on Friday night was -11ºC, without the wind chill.

Previous to the new record on Friday night, the previous record was 10,977 megawatts set in December 2022.

The consumption on Friday was more than 30 per cent higher than the previous Friday night before the cold snap began, and Saturday night’s peak hourly load remained high at nearly 11,000 megawatts.

In a statement, BC Hydro CEO, Chris O’Reilly says “BC is fortunate to have an integrated, provincial hydroelectric system that allows BC Hydro to ramp up quickly when generation is needed and scale back when it is not.”

“Our teams carefully plan and prepare for cold weather events like this to ensure our generating facilities are running at full capacity so we can deliver clean electricity to our customers when they need it the most,” says O’Reilly.

BC Hydro provides assistance to Alberta

During the extreme cold, BC Hydro didn’t require help from other markets and actually managed to export megawatts to Alberta and other regions in the Pacific Northwest where high demand resulted in system challenges.

BC Hydro says it sent 200 megawatts to Alberta following Saturday night’s electrical grid alert from Alberta’s Electrical Systems Operator.

“Extreme weather events like drought and cold snaps are putting people and communities at increased risk,” said Josie Osborne, Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation. “Thanks to the resiliency of our energy system and exceptional planning by BC Hydro, we are able to meet the needs of British Columbians while also delivering clean, reliable hydro-electricity to our neighbours in Alberta when they needed it most.”

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No more records expected to be broken in BC

As BC begins to slowly warm up from the bone-chilling cold over the next few days, BC Hydro is not expecting any additional records to be broken.

However, the power provide says demand will remain higher-than-average.