Cold weather and plant outages push up Alberta power prices

• 12 years ago (2012-01-18)
• David Flin

North America 1021

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Power prices in the Canadian province of Alberta soared after two generation facilities tripped off-line during a severe cold spell. After two days of record-setting electricity consumption in the province, the Alberta Electric System Operator admitted that unplanned outages at TransAlta Corp.’s 1387 MW coal-fired Keephills plant and the 144 MW H R Milner plant had put pressure on supply.

As a result of the combination of outages and high demand, power prices in Alberta reached $900 per MWh on 17 January. Dawn Delaney, spokeswoman for the Alberta Electric System Operator, said: “We still have supply available to us in the merit order. We are not in a supply shortfall, and we have not had to utilise the generation available to us in our reserve margin, of which there is currently approximately 600 MW.”

Temperatures of around -30°C saw power demand in the province reach a record 10,609 MW. Previously, the highest demand was 10,236 MW in December 2009.