Manitoba Hydro hero behind Saskatchewan’s support: Kinew

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This article was published 19/01/2024 (622 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Saskatchewan provided Alberta with more than 150 megawatts of power during a severe shortage last week, but it was Manitoba that “saved the day,” Premier Wab Kinew says.

While SaskPower exported power to assist with its western neighbour’s cold snap-fuelled shortage, it in turn imported more than 200 MW from Manitoba Hydro, Kinew said at an unrelated news conference Friday.

“There may be an idea that some other Prairie provinces stepped in, but it was actually Manitoba,” the premier said. “I’m very proud of Manitoba Hydro’s ability to step in and help our neighbours to the west.”

In an emergency alert issued Jan. 13 at about 7 p.m., Albertans were warned widespread record-breaking cold temperatures had put the province’s power grid at a high risk of outages. It was severe enough residents were asked to avoid using their stoves and turn off unnecessary electrical appliances.

The grid alert was ended by about 9 p.m.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe later posted to X (formerly Twitter) announcing his province was providing support and took a jab at the federal government.

“That power will be coming from natural gas and coal-fired plants, the ones the Trudeau government is telling us to shut down (which we won’t),” Moe wrote Jan. 13.

Manitoba Hydro has an export contract in place with SaskPower that provides it with renewable hydroelectric power.

“As usual, under the terms of those contracts, we were supplying energy to them last week,” Hydro corporate communications director Scott Powell said Friday in an email. “The daily amount of energy supplied varies, although we can supply up to 315 MW of capacity under those contracts.”

It’s one of several power sale arrangements Manitoba Hydro keeps; others include Minnesota Power and Wisconsin Public Service.

Finance Minister Adrien Sala, also minister responsible for Hydro, couldn’t say how much of the power passed along to Alberta came through Manitoba.

However, Sala said he was “proud to be able to use our clean hydro to help support our neighbouring provinces… It is quite common for utilities to share power in times of need.”

At the time of Alberta’s shortage, it was under an extreme cold warning and the province’s grid had as little as 10 MW in reserve at its lowest Jan. 13.

Sala said he was confident a similar shortage would not occur in Manitoba this winter.

“We do need to develop our capacity to ensure that we have the energy we need to meet the requirements of Manitobans and our economic development growth opportunities,” he said.

“But right now, we are confident in our capacity that we have to meet energy needs during times such as these.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca