P.E.I.'s electricity supply not keeping up with population growth, says utility

Maritime Electric, P.E.I.'s main electricity utility, told a standing committee Thursday that population growth is outpacing its capacity to keep up with supply.

The utility's CEO told a standing committee Thursday that it's serving more customers than ever — reaching a new threshold of 90,000 this year — but population growth is outpacing its ability to provide electricity.

"I am concerned," said Jason Roberts, the president and CEO of Maritime Electric. "We need to start thinking about how we're using energy and when we're using energy."

The utility told MLAs on the committee that the 2023 polar vortex was a "canary in the coal mine," because it highlighted the extent to which extreme weather events can test the limits of P.E.I.'s energy system.

If the Island were to experience extended periods of similar cold weather in the future, Roberts said, "it could be a challenge" for the utility.

He said "the cold dark days of winter" will mean a rush of increased usage as homes fire up their heat pumps.

P.E.I. currently buys energy from off-Island, Roberts said, but increased consumption elsewhere in the region means neighbouring provinces have less energy available to share.

In addition, he added, planned power plant closures in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are set to exacerbate the problem in the near future.

The utility's ability to deliver electricity is "really concerning," said Liberal MLA Robert Henderson.

He speculated that one source of the gap between energy capacity and demand is what he referred to as the "over-electrifying" of the Island.

"The province and government has been wonderful in trying to increase the capacity of using electrification, so we've got all kinds of incentives [for] free heat pumps, electric vehicles, solar panels, all those things, but we're not putting a dime or any energies into handling the capacity of the delivery of electricity to Islanders," he said.

Henderson said the extreme cold snap last year put the energy system right at the edge, and the government needs to get aggressive to increase capacity.

As well as exploring solar and wind generation technology, Roberts said Maritime Electric is looking at supplementing the energy mix with technologies such as combustion turbines. He said acquiring the combustion turbines will take between two and three years if procurement is started soon.

In the meantime, he said the utility will have to rely on Islanders to use energy wisely.