City of Cold Lake presses ATCO for solutions following repeated power outages

Cold Lake city council has directed administration to send a formal letter of concern to ATCO Electric following a series of power outages.

COLD LAKE - Repeated power outages affecting thousands of Cold Lake homes and businesses have prompted City council to seek information regarding potential long-term improvements to the community’s electrical grid. Council passed a motion directing administration to issue a letter of concern to ATCO Electric regarding grid reliability and emergency preparedness, at its July 14 regular meeting. The letter calls for a collaborative discussion with ATCO about strengthening the city’s electrical network and improving power delivery to critical municipal facilities.

The City’s immediate priority is establishing a secondary power supply for the Cold Lake Energy Centre, which is intended to serve as an emergency reception centre, but has been unavailable during several outages. The City is primarily supplied through a transmission corridor extending north from a grid station south of the city. A separate corridor serves portions of Cold Lake North along Highway 55, but differences between the systems limit their ability to support one another when an outage occurs, according to the City of Cold Lake.

Since May 2023, the primary corridor has experienced five significant outages, each affecting more than 3,000 homes and businesses. The outages occurred on May 31, 2023; Sept. 13, 2024; Jan. 23, 2026; April 22, 2026 and July 3, 2026. Effects of the outages have included sump pump failures and increased flooding risks, disruptions at the marina, threats to arena ice at the Energy Centre, and complications with emergency shelter planning.

CAO Kevin Nagoya emphasized that the letter is not meant to criticize ATCO’s response during outages. He said the company has generally acted quickly, keeping the City informed, while working alongside emergency management officials. Instead, the City wants to focus on long-term planning and address parts of the community that appear to experience repeated outages.

“You can now predict where those outages are going to be each time. And that is one thing that's challenging us,” he added. Nagoya said improvements could allow other parts of the electrical network to restore service when one of the main supply routes goes down.

“I think there needs to be a solution in terms of some other ways to service the community so that way when a power system goes down on one trunk that it can be serviced in other ways and systems can come back online, and it's just those extended ones as you can see where we're having those challenges. I think there could be some opportunities to improve the network, “said Nagoya. Mayor Bob Mattice said the tone of the letter was appropriate, and that the City should address the issue before continued growth places additional pressure on the system.

Administration previously met with ATCO following the May 2023 outage to discuss a secondary power supply for the Energy Centre. The approved letter formally renews that request while seeking a broader conversation about electrical redundancy and emergency preparedness across Cold Lake.