Manitoba Hydro has been fined nine times by Alberta's energy-sales regulator for running afoul of rules governing the electricity market in that province.

The findings of wrongdoing were made public by Alberta’s Market Surveillance Administrator, known as the MSA, which fined Hydro a total of $15,000 in 2009.

Manitoba Hydro is based in a new office complex in downtown Winnipeg. (CBC)The MSA is a provincial oversight body in Alberta that monitors electricity and natural gas sales. It also enforces fair market practices for Alberta's electricity trade.

The Alberta government has established regulations — called independent system operator rules — to promote stability in the electrical system.

The MSA, which enforces the rules, found Manitoba Hydro violations having to do with how the utility times the flow of electricity exports into Alberta. Hydro uses Saskatchewan's transmission lines to get its exports into Alberta.

Regulations require companies to schedule their electricity flows and stick to that plan unless there’s an operational reason to change it, said MSA lawyer Douglas Wilson.

'These rules are not just important, but they're critical.'— Michal Moore, energy expert

"In every second, minute and hour they have to balance the demand for electricity with the supply," Wilson told CBC News.

"It can fluctuate quickly and dramatically."

Wilson said Manitoba Hydro's power traders "did some changes too close to real time, without enough advance warning."

The MSA determined Manitoba Hydro violated the operator rules on nine separate occasions from March through May 2009. A fines ranging from $500 to $2,000 was levied in each case.

Human error to blame

However, the mistakes were inadvertent and triggered by human error, said David Cormie, Hydro's division manager of power sales and operations.

Cormie said Hydro employees who conduct power trades entered proper data but didn't realize their computer screens had timed out. Because of that, important messages about electrical flow didn't get to the system's operator in Alberta.

He said the traders have since been given training to correct the problem.

Cormie added that the screen time-out issue is prompted by software used by Alberta's electrical system operators and not Manitoba Hydro's systems.

The errors had no impact on the reliability of the electrical system, Hydro and the MSA said.

Hydro did not report the errors to the regulator, even though the MSA says it wants companies to self-report mistakes when they're made.

Expert finds number of sanctions unusual

However, Cormie said the reason Hydro didn't step forward to report the mistakes was that they only became apparent after the Alberta system operator conducted an audit.

"Like in all activities, sometimes [people] make mistakes," Cormie said.

Michal Moore, an energy and sustainability expert in Alberta, says the fines Manitoba Hydro received are an indication of potential problems with operating procedures at the Crown corporation. (CBC)But an Alberta-based expert in the regulation of electricity markets told CBC News that it's unusual for any major electrical company to have received so many regulatory fines.

"These rules are not just important, but they're critical," said Michal Moore, a senior fellow at the University of Calgary's Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy.

"When there’s a fine, it says that [the company's] either been not attentive to detail, or the software or the operating procedures are inadequate and it’s a notice to rectify things before they get out of hand.

"In my experience, this is not a kind of problem that is usually allowed to persist very long."

Hydro likened the violations to speeding tickets, an analogy the MSA said was reasonable to make, the regulator said.

"We do expect people will comply with the rules, but at the same time it’s not surprising the rules are sometimes broken inadvertently," Wilson said.

One of the key things we're looking for is improvement in compliance, and it looks like that has happened here."