The race to make Canada’s power grids more resilient – before it’s too late

A giant fireball is seen as a wildfire rips through the forest 16 km south of Fort McMurray, Alberta on highway 63 on May 7, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

This is the second of a two-part report on the resiliency of Canada’s power grids in the face of climate change and increasing extreme weather.

Among the first to enter Jasper National Park after wildfires tore through it last year was a crew with ATCO Electric trying to get the power back on.

“There was [...] debris everywhere,” said Amanda Mattern, vice president of the utility’s electric operations. “Assessing the damage after the Jasper wildfires was challenging and really emotional for our whole team.”

Keeping electricity flowing in the face of extreme weather events like this one has become a central issue for many in Canada’s electricity sector and experts in the field who are looking for solutions with innovation and urgency.

Weathering the storm, hardening the grid with technology

The Grid Modernization Centre at the University of Toronto was developed to do exactly that. It’s equipped with high-powered technology to run real-time simulations of Canada’s electrical energy systems.

“The problem is not necessarily a lack of sufficient action on the utility side,” said Ali Hooshyar, director of the centre. “The problem is the magnitude of the challenge that the utilities are facing.”

The centre’s high-powered technology simulates scenarios where the grid could be under strain, such as in the case of a lightning strike on a transmission line during a storm. This real-time modelling exercise is used to test the performance of actual grid components before the worst-case scenarios occur.

“We need to make sure that the grid is modernized, the grid is made robust against potential severe weather conditions that could occur in the future,” he said.

While the centre is a more recent effort to harden Canada’s grids, for utilities like Nova Scotia Power, the threat of extreme weather isn’t new. But it is getting worse.

“Right now, it would definitely be the biggest vulnerability [to the grid] with these weather patterns that we’re seeing,” said Matt Drover, senior director of energy delivery. “They’re much more severe, much more intense, and they’re definitely taking a toll.”

Replacing old electricity poles with bigger, stronger ones to better withstand storms is one of Nova Scotia Power’s solutions to making its critical grid infrastructure more resilient to the consequences of climate change.

Smarter grids, new risks

Building a ‘smarter’ grid that uses digital technology, sensors and software to communicate information also allows utilities to make supply and demand decisions faster and more efficiently.

For example, Drover explained NS Power is installing smart devices across the province that can segment circuits, effectively localizing outages, so that when a tree does fall on a transmission line, fewer customers would be impacted.

But implementing new technologies to make the grid smarter comes with risks.

Recently, Nova Scotia Power was hit with a cybersecurity breach that gave thieves access to data belonging to 280,000 customers. The utility has not said how the breach occurred.

“When you make something smarter and you start to depend on sensors, communication technology and intelligent computing, you basically shift the vulnerability,” said Deepa Kundar, a managing director of the Grid Modernization Centre. Her research group is working to prevent and respond to this growing vulnerability.

Energy sovereignty with an east-west grid

While utilities and industry innovators work on technological solutions to strengthen Canada’s grid, a recent surge in political will for nation-building projects may provide another avenue to increased reliability: a national east-west grid.

During the election, Prime Minister Mark Carney promised to work with provinces to build an east-west grid to secure Canadian energy independence, as the country grapples with U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to Canadian sovereignty.

Canada’s power grid is made up of three primary systems: the Western grid, the Eastern grid, and the Quebec grid, which includes Atlantic Canada.

While the provinces are responsible for generating their own electricity, these grids are structured in a north-south configuration to facilitate electricity imports and exports to the United States.

In many cases, Canadian provinces transfer electricity more easily with the United States than with each other.

But recent interest in energy sovereignty and proposed projects like a Yukon-B.C. interconnection that would, for the first time, connect the territory to the rest of North America, may see Canada shift towards a pan-Canadian grid that would encourage less reliance on the U.S. for energy transfers while strengthening the grid against severe weather threats.

In its latest report from April, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) found Quebec and Nova Scotia will be particularly vulnerable to outages in extreme weather scenarios going forward, especially during cold snaps.

Part of the industry watchdog’s recommendation was to increase transfer capability to Quebec, importing additional energy from New Brunswick, Ontario, New York, and New England, while Nova Scotia could mitigate its power shortfall by adding transfer capability from New Brunswick.

The NERC report identified adding 12 to 14 gigawatts of transfer capability between provinces could help grids stay resilient in extreme conditions.

Diversifying the energy supply

“We’re going to require an all-of-the-above approach,” to meet the challenge of extreme weather, said Francis Bradley, president and CEO of Electricity Canada, a national group representing the electricity sector. That includes new technologies, more interconnections between provinces, and diverse power generation options.

“We’re going to need more wind, more solar, more hydro, more nuclear to be able to meet the challenges of the future,” he said.

More than half of Canada’s electricity comes from hydro generation, but drought conditions in recent years have decreased outputs. According to Statistics Canada, in 2024, hydroelectricity generation was down nearly five per cent from the previous year and 3.5 per cent lower than the five-year average going back to 2019.

More supply options mean greater reliability and energy resiliency when extreme weather events strain the grid. For example, wind and solar plants are not affected by drought conditions, unlike hydro, and can help ensure a stable power supply.

Empowering Canadians to support the grid

There may also be a role for Canadians to play. Currently, in moments of high electricity demand, like during a heat wave or a cold snap, many operators urge consumers to reduce their use, in turn, lessening the load on the grid.

For example, during Alberta’s cold snap in January 2024, the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) used a grid alert when the power system was under stress, asking consumers in the region to reduce their electricity use. Almost immediately after the alert was issued, AESO reported it saw a significant 200 MW drop in electricity demand.

While that demand response involves consumers playing an important role in mitigating power shortfalls in a traditional grid system, new technologies, new infrastructure, and diversification can all be part of a future solution to keep the country powered on during difficult situations.

“You take electricity for granted until you don’t have it,” Hooshyar explained. As climate change accelerates, Canada’s grid systems will be tested, but adding diverse “layers of reliability” now are critical to preventing catastrophic failure before it’s too late.

• Part one: Why Canada’s power grid is not ready for extreme weather

Rukshar Ali is a multi-platform journalist from Calgary and a recipient of the Sachedina - CTV News - Fellowship.