Highest electricity demand we’ve seen so far this summer, expert says

Ontario’s scorching heat wave isn’t just making people sweat, it’s cranking power usage to peak levels.

With air conditioners humming across the province, this kind of heat is usually more typical midway through the summer - not right at the beginning. This means that Ontario’s energy grid is being tested a bit earlier than usual.

Experts predict that the peak usage will hit around 7 p.m. Monday night. That peak is expected to reach about 25,000 megawatts and as of this hour, our usage has already climbed past 24,000.

To put that in perspective, last year, we hit about 23,000 megawatts as our June peak. So Monday’s projected number would be the highest electricity demand we’ve seen so far during the warmer months.

Robby Sohi, chief operating officer and executive vice-president of markets and reliability at Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator says, “We’ve been averaging around the 20,000 mark, give or take. So, you know, this will likely be one of our hotter days of the summer. Typically, we see our peaks in July and August, but this one, if you look at maybe the top five, six, seven peaks of the year, it’s probably going to be one of them.”

Temperatures are expected to come down later this week which would bring electricity demand back to typical summer usage levels.