Grid alerts and rolling outages

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Understanding grid alerts and what to expect
- Why grid alerts happen
- What to do during a grid alert
How rolling power outages work
- How to prepare for rolling power outages

Understanding grid alerts and what to expect

As one of Alberta’s electricity distributors, EPCOR works around the clock to ensure safe and reliable service for its customers. When a grid alert is declared in Alberta, we follow directives from the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) and, as a last option to ensure reliability, rolling power outages could happen. Here’s what you need to know.

Why grid alerts happen

Our power grid needs to maintain a balance between energy supply and demand. When the province’s supply becomes too tight to serve the demand for electricity, a grid alert will be issued by the AESO.

Grid alerts can happen due to factors like:

Extreme weather during winter or summer (increased use of heating or air conditioning).
Time of day and conditions affecting renewable energy generation.
Unplanned generation facility outages.

What to do during a grid alert

When the AESO issues a grid alert, it directs EPCOR and other utilities to monitor power consumption and prepare for possible load shedding (rolling outages).

During this time, every effort from the public to help reduce power consumption is crucial to return to normal conditions:

Turn off unnecessary lights and electrical appliances.
Reduce the use of space heaters or air conditioners.
Avoid or limit tasks that need major power-consuming equipment, like doing laundry or using the dishwasher.
Try to use smaller appliances to prepare food instead of the stove.

More tips to conserve power.

You can follow real-time updates about grid alerts through EPCOR’s and the AESO’s social media channels.

Grid alerts don’t often result in an outage, thanks to the public’s efforts to reduce electricity use. But when demand remains too high and the energy supply can’t keep up, more serious emergency measures are needed. The AESO will instruct EPCOR and the other electricity distributors to reduce power consumption in their areas, which means the start of rotating outages in Alberta.

How rolling power outages work

Rolling or rotating power outages are temporary, controlled disconnections of power to different areas. Each area in the rotation will experience a 20-30-minute outage on average.

When rolling power outages begin, the AESO assigns electricity distributors with a specific energy load to disconnect (also known as load shedding). EPCOR will find and disconnect areas with circuits that have a similar energy load.

Rolling outages will end once the power grid has enough supply to meet the demand for electricity.

The AESO and EPCOR will post public notifications when rolling power outages are in effect and when outages end.

How to prepare for rolling power outages

Although it is necessary to follow the rolling outages directive, we aim to restore safe and reliable service as quickly as possible. Our goal is always to keep each outage of the rotation to a maximum of 30 minutes, but the duration of the outages will depend on the circumstances and the state of the grid at the time. Since conditions change quickly during this period, it isn’t possible to notify each Edmonton neighbourhood ahead of time that they will be affected by rolling outages.

We recommend that you are always prepared to stay safe during outages:

Check our power outage map for updates on outages in your area.
Keep an emergency preparedness kit easy to reach.
Keep a supply of non-perishable food and water handy.
Have a list of emergency phone numbers with you.
Have an emergency plan for your family.

Find more tips to prepare for power outages.