Oppressive heat and thick smog hovering over parts of the province in recent days have sent many Ontario residents in search of air-conditioned refuge, causing a sharp spike in energy demands that experts say topped even last year's preblackout levels.
The demand patterns over the past two days are slightly higher than they were before last year's massive blackout, which left millions of people in Ontario and the Eastern U.S. without electricity, said Terry Young of Ontario's Independent Electricity Market Operator.
"Typically, you'd see peak demand for electricity in the order of about 20,300 megawatts on a summer day," Mr. Young said. "But, we're projecting it to be 24,000 megawatts."
And while that's about 4,000 megawatts higher than usual for this time of year, Energy Minister Dwight Duncan said he's not overly worried.
"Ontario has, historically, grown more quickly than in other jurisdictions," said Mr. Duncan, whose ministry is aggressively trying to expand generation capacity in the province.
"But we think a combination of policies we'll soon implement will lead to results very soon."
Mr. Young said the province has about 10 per cent more power available than it did before the blackout. He said the IMO is able to meet high demand with minimal importing of electricity from other provinces or south of the border.
"The good news is that we can meet the high demand . . . but that's also the bad news," he said.
After last summer's outage, people were doing their part to conserve energy by turning on dishwashers and doing laundry during off-peak hours, Mr. Young said.
Not even a year later, that attitude has changed.
"We're not seeing the kind of response that we did see after the outage," Mr. Young said.
"If you can't go without using as much electricity during the peak hours, that certainly doesn't help ease the strain on the system."
Going along with the heat was the smog, which had the Environment Ministry issuing smog alerts for more than 20 regions across the province and urging people to stay indoors.
But remaining inside may not be such a great idea either, warned the Canadian Lung Association.
Brian Stocks, air-quality manager for the Ontario region, said air pollution can often be as serious a problem indoors as out.
"Dampness, mould, viruses and dust can cause serious respiratory problems," he said.
Studies in Canada and the U.S. have suggested that domestic environments can contain a number of potentially harmful pollutants. Concentrations of some of these contaminants can be between two and five times higher than outdoor levels.
"It's fine for people to say inside, just as long as they take precautions there, too," Mr. Stocks said.