Extreme weather conditions threaten the future of hydropower in Canada November 27, 2024

Up to half of Canada's dams are over 50 years old and not designed for extreme weather fluctuations. Sebastien ST-JEAN

From AFP - Agence France Presse

Extreme weather conditions threaten the future of hydropower in Canada

By Mathiew LEISER

Hydropower generation in Canada is in steep decline as extreme weather linked to climate change, particularly sudden swings between drought and flooding, are taking a toll on output while endangering the very structure of the dams themselves.

Canada, the world leader in hydropower, has also had to curb exports to the United States, which have reached their lowest level in 14 years, according to the national statistics agency.

Canada has previously had to import energy from the US for three consecutive months – an unprecedented turn of events in eight years – a reversal that highlights the dramatic bottlenecks in hydroelectric production in Canada and abroad.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) announced that 2023 marked a “record decline” in global hydroelectricity production, which also affected other major producers such as China, Turkey, and the United States. The IEA attributed the declines to a “severe and prolonged drought” in major producer regions.

In Canada, which gets 60 percent of its energy from hydroelectricity, the drought has hit hard in the main producing provinces of British Columbia, Manitoba, and Quebec.

The challenges in generating electricity can be felt at the giant Daniel-Johnson Dam in Quebec, northeast of Montreal. Hydro-Quebec said the dam contains enough concrete to build a walkway from the North Pole to the South Pole.

Hydro-Quebec engineer Pierre-Marc Rondeau said that the low water levels measured in certain reservoirs in recent years have “broken records.”

The publicly listed company is beginning to feel the effects of climate change, he said.

Water shortages have reduced profits by 30 percent in the first nine months of this year; the company confirmed this month.

Hydro-Quebec has also had to cut exports this year and in 2023 to meet local demand – a major setback for a company that has invested in new transmission lines and signed long-term supply contracts with customers in New York and Massachusetts.

“We are adjusting the way we operate the reservoirs to be ready at all times” in case of flooding or drought, Rondeau told AFP.

The combined effects of extreme drought and extreme flooding are ‘exponentially’ increasing the challenges for the hydropower sector, said Reza Najafi, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Western University in Ontario.

Najafi is among a group of researchers working on new guidelines for dams in response to the increase in extreme weather events.

“We have identified some critical gaps in the current framework and practices for both the design and planning of dams and dikes,” he said.

Up to 50 percent of the country's dams are more than 50 years old and not designed for extreme weather fluctuations, he explained.

Eloise Edom of the L'Institut de l'Energie Trottier at Polytechnique Montreal pointed out that flash floods that used to occur only once a century in parts of Canada now occur twice a decade.

For Philippe Gachon, a professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal, it is crucial that national planning authorities take into account the dramatic changes in the water cycle when considering the future of hydropower in Canada.

“We are going to have volumes of water that we have never seen before,“ he told AFP.

He pointed out that Hydro-Quebec has already integrated the new reality of extreme weather into its infrastructure plans.

“But will this reflection, this rethinking of infrastructure, be able to keep pace with change? Nobody knows,” he said.

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