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By Alessia Proietti

duty calls

Red Deer city staff commended for quickly rectifying two power outages over the cold weekend

Jan 15, 2024 | 4:32 PM

Plugging in a personal vehicle seemed an impossible task over the past week due to extreme weather conditions that broke cold temperature records. But for Red Deer city staff, a duty to residents triumphs the desire to stay warm by the fireplace.

Jim Jorgensen, Red Deer’s Utilities Manager, commended city staff for quickly rectifying two power outages in less than an hour each this weekend.

“They do a fantastic job. They’re up in the air in buckets, climbing poles; they are exposed to the elements which is why we take a lot of care to make sure that, they take care of themselves as well, but to move that quickly. That’s something that’s really important and a matter of pride for all of the folks involved. When trouble happens, 24/7, we get calls, we go and deal with it. In many, just about all of the cases, we respond and get it back on as fast as we can no matter what the conditions are,” he said, stressing the safety of his staff.

With the cold front beginning on Thursday, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) confirmed that Red Deer, among numerous cities across the province, set new temperature records this Saturday and Sunday, both reaching -44.3C in the city in comparison to -38.8C in 2005.

READ: Record low temperatures set during current cold snap

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On January 13, Jorgensen says a power outage took place for 45 minutes, from 2:16 – 3 a.m., affecting roughly 4,000 residents mainly in the northern part of the city like the Edgar, Queens, and Johnstone neighbourhoods.

He said an alarm initiated a protection and control response at one of their four substations, causing the transformer to shut down as a preventative measure. City staff, as required, had to check the system for any issues before resuming operations. He says the cold temperatures may have played a factor in causing this reaction, and the incident is currently being investigated to see if the system reacted accordingly, as they believe it did.

On January 14, Jorgensen says they were notified by a resident at 10:30 p.m. of a red light glowing on a piece of equipment on top of a power pole. He said it is extremely helpful when residents phone in about sights of concern.

“Our staff was able to assess and deal with it before it became a bigger problem. If it had failed on its own, it could have been a more widespread outage that would have impacted more and potentially taken longer,” he said.

Sending crews immediately, it was determined that a switch was warning of a potential failure. Roughly 700 residents were without power for 50 minutes, from 11:53 p.m. to 12:43 a.m. this morning, as crews, working in rotation to stay warm, rectified the situation.

He said equipment like the switch can wear over time due to extreme variations in temperature, causing metal to expand and contract.

None of the outages related to the province’s power grid struggles, Jorgensen confirmed. He says the City makes up just one per cent of the province’s energy demands, given their population size.

The City began to receive alerts from the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) on Friday that the power grid was being taxed with an increasing load due to the cold temperatures. On Saturday citizens were advised to help shed the load by reducing electricity use of stoves, ovens, and laundry machines during peak times from 4 – 8 p.m. Jorgensen says the province was able to reduce the electricity demand by three per cent, or by 200 megawatts as noted by Premier Danielle Smith on her social media.

READ: Alberta grid alert ended, again

The province generates electricity from a variety of sources like natural gas, coal, hydro-electric dams, wind and solar, and transports it to municipalities through a transmission tower system. Red Deer’s four substations then transport the electricity to homes and businesses through distribution systems above ground, with wires and poles, and underground.

READ: Online petition over Alberta’s high utility rates exceeds 82,000 signatures

With the current national debate of the federal government’s mandates on cleaner energy and provincial arguments that fossil fuels are needed during extreme weather conditions, Jorgensen says he trusts the AESO will make the right decisions for Albertans.

“My biggest concern is making sure that, when asked, we have sufficient generation that’s going to meet demands in these extreme times,” he said.

Jorgensen reminded Red Deerians to be safe during cold temperatures and to be careful in what they use as indoor heating sources to not put themselves at risk.

“There are times when you might be tempted to bring your barbeque in or something like that to try to heat your house and we really, strongly have to advise, please don’t do that because burning something inside of your house creates not only a fire risk but carbon monoxide risk and we don’t want to make matters worse,” he said.