With the extreme heat, Saskatchewan was close to setting a new summer power consumption record last Monday afternoon.
The province was at 3,478 megawatts on July 28th, with the record being 3,551 set on August 31st, 2022.
SaskPower spokesperson Joel Cherry says there are a number of things they can do to make sure there's a reliable supply of electricity available for customers.
"We optimize our system, if there's any planned maintenance, for example, we can defer that. We try to maximize imports. We have tie lines to Manitoba, Alberta, and the United States and if imported power is available we look to that."
He explained how the hot weather affects power production.
"The reason for that is that heat causes derates at our facilities. Especially natural gas facilities but also, to some degree, the coal facilities as well. When it gets really warm, it affects cooling water temperatures, for one example. It affects the ability of our facilities to produce the maximum output. We can see our ability to generate power at those facilities affected pretty significantly."
In addition to the hot weather, Cherry revealed the power supply has also been impacted due to the Poplar River Power Station near Coronach being offline due to recent flooding.
He said practicing power conservation benefits both SaskPower and its customers.
"Even if it's just simple things like using a BBQ outside instead of the oven. Using large appliances that generate heat and use a lot of power later in the night or earlier in the day and away from the peak time which is usually around the supper hour between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Taking those steps both helps our customers save some power on their bills but it also helps to avoid taxing our grid as well."
Cherry says the greatest power consumption is seen during periods of extreme cold and extreme heat. He added that low winds also compound issues with generating power.
"In the last couple of days we have had some wind which has been good. I think on Tuesday we had up to 375 megawatts of wind power on the system. But when it's calm we don't have access to that wind energy and quite often extreme heat is coupled with low winds, so if you have a really hot, calm period we don't have access to wind power and it can affect our thermal generation facilities too."
The all-time power consumption record in Saskatchewan was set on December 30th, 2021 at 3,910 megawatts.