Posts mislead on Alberta electricity warning during extreme cold snap

"The sum of it is: 'Don't use power. If you do, we're gonna cut your power off,'" a woman who says she lives in Alberta claims in a January 13, 2024 TikTok with more than 686,000 views. 

The woman superimposes herself over a screenshot of an emergency alert for the province of Alberta, advising residents of potential consequences of high energy usage during an extreme cold wave which saw temperatures in the province to drop below -40 degrees Celsius in some locations (archived here). She claims that on top of a receiving warning to stop using power at risk of a cut, her town has already experienced brief electricity outages.

Copies of the video jumped to Instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter, where it received thousands more views.

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Screenshot of a TikTok, taken January 22, 2024

While AFP was not able to determine if this individual lost power, Alberta Electric Systems Operator (AESO) -- the non-profit which manages the province's electrical grid -- said it never had to issue power outages during the cold snap in the middle of January. Spokesman Leif Sollid said an emergency alert was sent out on January 13 because high demand on the electrical grid had the potential to require rotating outages (archived here).

"Within minutes of the Alert being issued, at 6:44 pm, demand on the grid had fallen by approximately 200 MW, eliminating the need to implement rotating outages," Sollid said in a January 18 email.

Media coverage also reported outages were avoided as residents responded to the emergency alert.

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Screenshot of an Instagram post, taken January 22, 2024

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Screenshot of an X post, taken January 22, 2024

Rotating outages

According to AESO's website, Alberta relies on variety of electricity generation sources, with 60 percent of the grid's capacity coming from gas and 20 percent coming from wind (archived here). Sollid said the power grid came under pressure due to the high demand stemming from extreme temperatures, combined with unplanned gas outages and low wind generation.

AESO, in partnership with the Government of Alberta, decided to send out the alert to direct residents to conserve electricity, the spokesman said.

Had rotating outages been required, Sollid said the power would have been cut for everyone simultaneously across the province for 30-minute intervals -- excluding emergency services, such as hospitals and fire departments.

Sara Hastings-Simon, a University of Calgary professor specializing in energy systems, said rotating outages reduce demand on an electrical grid in a way that is preferable to a complete system shut down, which takes much longer to restart. 

"It's not without its impact, it's not a good thing to get to, but it is still under control of the system operators," she said.

Hastings-Simon said she had never heard of punitive, targeted outages as implied in the video. Rather, the alert system is used to warn the public that the consumption on the grid is reaching capacity.

"This was done in an emergency situation," she said. "Saying to people 'Our system is very strained right now and if you can shift your power demand to another time, that's better for everybody.'"

Several additional alerts were issued and lifted as the cold temperatures continued, but AESO said it never had to issue rotating power outages (archived here, here and here).

Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation in Canada here.