LAC LA BICHE - While Lac La Biche County residents were being asked to restrict electricity use and turn off household lights on Jan. 13 during an Alberta-wide power alert from the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, the local municipality was doing the same ... except for two fairly noticeable misses.
While municipal officials did move quickly to reduce lights and power usage in a number of public places, the Christmas tree lights on the large Indigenous feather art installation outside the Bold Center, as well as downtown Christmas lights — including hundreds on the 50-foot downtown Christmas tree — continued to shine brightly through the electricity alert issued on behalf of the Alberta Electric System Operator.
And while there was so much activity behind the scenes by municipal staff to react to the alert, Lac La Biche County spokesperson Jihad Moghrabi admits the Christmas lights were an oversight. He says the unique alert has been a learning event, helping to shine a light on future responses.
"Our facilities department did make sure that every light that could be turned off inside a building was turned off," Moghrabi said, "but the only thing that was on that should have, or could, have been turned off was the Christmas lights on the feather outside the Bold Center. We definitely could have done that, and we've identified that that for the future. We know for next time. It was a little bit of a miss on our part."
When asked about the lights on the downtown Christmas tree, Moghrabi said the municipality only partners with a volunteer group that organizes the bit tree light up, and didn't have access to turn those lights off. He said it will be another lesson learned from the alert.
Province-wide
The request for Albertans to reduce their power consumption was sent to all cell-phone holders in the same way as an Emergency Alert broadcast. The alert was issued by the Alberta Emergency Management Agency due to a reduced supply of electrical power a the same time generators were off-line and consumers were increasing their power needs during a province-wide deep-freeze weather event.
Moghrabi said that even though there was no specific alert sent to municipalities or other public bodies, County staff reacted quickly and used segments of their Community Emergency Management Plan to organize a response. He said senior staff are highly trained in a multitude of scenarios for emergency planning and were in touch with each other throughout the alert's duration which went through the weekend.
Part of that planning, said Moghrabi was keeping a balance between efficiency and safety.
"We did whatever we could to turn off the lights that we could, while at the same time, keeping our operation going," he said, explaining that downtown streetlights or lighting in public areas where staff or the public were present could not be reduced.
"Those are safety and security issues," he said.
Other areas saw lights and power levels adjusted where possible.
Bold on stand-by
As they worked to follow the alert, municipal officials were also planning for a worse-case scenario. If the alert resulted in widespread power outages, Moghrabi said plans were ready to convert the Bold Center into an emergency reception centre.
"We did have plans to use the Bold Center as a warming facility and a reception centre, if people were to lose power or heat. That was to be our community hub," Moghrabi said.
Overall, the response to the unique alert — from residents and municipal officials — was a positive experience, said Moghrabi. There were things that were done well and things that were learned for the next time.
"This was the first time, at least in my tenure at Lac La Biche County that we've had something like this.... and it was a general notice to all Albertans. It was a general alert asking everyone to 'do your part' and we did as an organization."
Provincially, the response was also applauded by Alberta's Minister of Affordability and Utilities Nathan Neudorf.
“The response was absolutely tremendous. We saw 100 megawatts come off within the first minute and another 100 megawatts within minutes after that. Just to give some reference to that, 100 megawatts is approximately the equivalent of what 120,000 houses would use in an hour,” Neudorf said.
