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Right on, Fishteck. The Alberta Electric System Operator ("AESO"), who administer the wholesale electricity market in Alberta, publish the hourly wholesale price for electricity in the province here: http://ets.aeso.ca/ Go to the "Historical" tab, and select "Pool Price". Then enter the date range of interest, and up pops the hourly wholesale price history. Generally, there is a materially higher hourly electricity price during the day, than at night, as electrical load in the province correlates strongly with daily human activity (household, work, etc., vs. sleeping at night). Hence the pattern in the Bow hydro flows you show above - flow the water (and thus generate electricity) during the day, when the price is higher, and cut back at night. Water in these relatively small reservoirs is valuable/scarce, and hence its value in the form of electricity is to be maximized in accordance with hourly electricity prices. The further bad news is that with all the wind generation we are adding in this province, this will increase electricity price volatility (due to the fact that wind energy generation is intermittent, and somewhat unpredictable - cannot be controlled/matched to load). Hence, when the wind blows at night, when we are generally surplus electricity supply anyways, it pushes down the price. Conversely, when demand is high and the wind isn't blowing, price shoots up. In Feb this year, through the cold, wind generation was almost nonexistent in Alberta - and we had very, very high electricity prices accordingly. So as more wind adds to electricity price volatility, the economic driver to screw with these hydro flows to take advantage of that peak electricity pricing will only increase. Coupled with the TransAlta hydro PPA's expiring in 2020, this could be a "perfect storm" for even more jacking around with these hydro facilities, with further detrimental effects to the fisheries.

Sparkplug: There are many who are in the know suggest that TransAlta Bow River hydropeaking power generation plants could well be violating DFO legislation whereby a native fishery needs protection from man's intervention. An example is Pocaterra on the Kananaskis River where hydropeaking is at its worst. During the night water flows are almost stopped to fill the Lower Kananaskis Lake. The Kananaskis River was once a pristine Cutthroat Trout Fishery. TransAlta power generation plants on this river have eliminated a once quality fishery.

Ah, my favorite topic...actually FishnChips, Alberta has more than ample peaking power generation, without the Bow system hydro at all. Hydro elsewhere (e.g., NSR system) and, increasingly, gas-fired generation provide all the peaking we need. In 2020, the current Power Purchase Agreements to which most of the Bow hydro plants are subject expire. Then TransAlta can basically operate these unfettered (from an electricity market dispatch standpoint - still subject to their operating licenses (Alberta Environment) and any flood mitigation protocols). These hydro assets are old, and have been fully depreciated for some time, so there really is no economic argument to be made to say that they could not be operated in another mode, i.e., more run-of-river, and with downstream flow stabilization as more of a priority, than on-demand peaking generation. Your electrical supply disruptions are a function primarily of the distribution system operation, wherever you are located. Alberta operates as an electricity pool - all generation output is sold into an pool, and then distributed from there. You should talk to your local distribution "wires" provider if you are having supply reliability problems. It has nothing to do with generation.