Power outages lead to flap over blame

There is some finger pointing going on betweenAlberta and B.C. utilities after rolling power outages hit Calgary and Edmonton on Monday afternoon.

It all happened after hot weather, a lightning strike and shutdown power plants combined to create an energy emergency.

The Alberta Electric System Operator ordered utilities Enmax in Calgary and Epcor in Edmonton to begin the rolling blackouts around 4:30 p.m. local time after demand for electricity outstripped the available supply.

The blackouts, which ranuntil7 p.m.,were limited to 30 minutes and occurred in different areas of the cities on a rotating basis.

Alberta Electric System Operator blamed the outages on a lightning strikethat shut down the transmission line from British Columbia to Alberta.

A BC Hydro spokeswoman told CBC News Tuesday that's not accurate.

"I would suggest that this is a made-in-Alberta problem," saidElisha Moreno.

"The challenge in Alberta right now is there are outages in some of the coal units in the system. They're not carrying enough energy for reserve for emergency situations and I think unfortunately they're trying to find a scapegoat for a problem that exists within their province."

Albertans asked to turn off the lights

The first sign of a problem came Monday afternoon when the operator put out a call to Albertans to voluntarily reduce their power use Monday afternoon.That was the first such call since 1998.

Albertans have broken six energy-use records since June, mostly due to increased use of air conditioners and irrigation systems.

On Monday, high temperatures taxed ageneratingsystem already short about 800 megawatts of power because five coal-fired plants were sitting idle or not connected to the system.

Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier said Monday that guaranteeing thepower supplies of hospitals was"the first priority" during the blackouts.

However, electricity was cutto homes and business, andsome traffic lights went dark during rush hour in Calgary.

Opposition calls for investigation

NDP Leader Brian Mason is calling on Alberta's auditor general to investigate what went wrong with the province's power grid on Monday.

Mason says he wants to find out why five plants were not generating power at a time it was desperately needed. The rolling outages Monday were another sign that the province's deregulation of electricity was a mistake, he said.

"If you take units off-line, the prices of electricity spikes and you make more money. That's in my view a fundamental flaw of deregulation of electricity. I think there needs to be an investigation."

The tight supply caused power prices to hit maximum levels of $1,000 a megawatt.

Fivepower plants down

Electricity was already being imported fromBritish Columbiaand Saskatchewan prior to the blackouts, but the power lines linking Alberta with those provinces have a limited capacity.

Coal-fired plants can take as little as 12 hours or as long as several days to come back up to full power after a shutdown.

Three of the idle coal plants are run by TransAlta, while two are run by ATCO Power.

"What's important to know is that unplanned outages occur from time to time in our fleet or in any fleet in North America," TransAlta spokeswomanSneh Seetal said Monday.

"We are working to return our plants to safe and reliable service as quickly as possible."

ATCO Power said two of its plants couldn't generate any power Monday because there was a problem with the transmission line connecting the plants to the provincial grid.