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BC Hydro seeing record consumption

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 15 Aug, 2023 03:49 PM

B-C Hydro says it set a new record for the highest peak hourly demand in August on Monday night.

It comes as a heat wave sweeping across the southern half of B-C also sets records, including 37.5 Celsius in Port Alberni, breaking a benchmark set in 1933 and 30.6 Celsius at Yoho National Park, surpassing a mark set in 1930.

Hydro says in a statement that consumption reached over 8,400 megawatts, with a heat wave usually adding 1,000 megawatts of power use, equal to turning on one million air-conditioning units.

While demand is higher during the heat wave, B-C Hydro says there’s no problem in meeting the additional demand because that's about three-quarters of what a peak load would be during the winter.

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