Council to discuss more resilient power supply for Cold Lake

Cold Lake, AB – Cold Lake Council will engage ATCO Electric in an effort to have the City’s power grid strengthened in the face in increasingly frequent power outages due to infrastructure failure.

The City of Cold Lake understands that there are challenges when planning utility and service delivery. The City and its staff also appreciate utility crews’ efforts to restore power quickly and effectively when outages occur, especially under difficult circumstances. Given that the community has experienced three power outages in 2026, however, there is a sense in the community that proactive work is warranted to limit continued exposure to such outages.

“We are asking that ATCO takes a serious look at reinforcing the grid and providing some redundancies in the system so the City’s connection to the grid is less tenuous than it seems to be at present,” Mayor Bob Mattice said. “We are concerned at the frequency with which we have had a significant number of households and businesses left without power.”

At Council’s last Regular Meeting, a motion was passed to address the matter in a letter to ATCO Electric. The City’s administration noted that significant power outages occurred on May 31, 2023, September 13, 2024, January 23, 2026, April 22, 20226 and July 3, 2026.

The City’s letter requests discussions regarding the overall reliability of the main power feed to the City of Cold Lake. It also seeks discussions surrounding a redundant power supply to the Cold Lake Energy Centre, which serves as the City’s primary emergency facility. Finally, it requests that ATCO conduct an analysis of the most recent outages while also studying means of increasing the local power grid’s resiliency in the long term.

“ATCO Electric and their staff have always been great partners, and we look forward to working with them on this important issue,” Mattice said. “A reliable, stable connection to the grid is important not only for our local economy, but it is also crucial for public safety.”  

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