Let's Talk Grid Reliability
Facts and fiction on a matter important to all Albertans
Over this past weekend, Alberta experienced an intense cold snap that caused enormous pressure on our electricity grid. Any extreme weather event is an opportunity for leadership from our elected officials. I’ll be perfectly blunt in saying that Danielle Smith reacted exactly the way I thought she would. The initial response from her office was a kneejerk reaction rooted in her ideology. Rather than communicating calmly about the situation, she made poorly informed jabs at wind energy.
Smith, and her government, seem to be willfully misunderstanding the role that wind and solar play in our energy mix. Peak demand time during an Alberta winter is going to be serviced by natural gas and power purchase from adjoining provinces. In fact, the UCP has stumbled on the electricity file for several years now beginning in 2019 with an important choice as they abandoned the plan to move to a capacity market.
What’s a capacity market?
Unpacking our electricity markets is no small feat, but there is one key change that the UCP made that has had a huge impact on electricity generation in Alberta.
AESO is the body that manages and operates the provincial power grid. Back in 2016 AESO recommended a transition to a capacity market which would have ensured more reliability in our grid. The NDP instructed AESO to move forward with their recommendation, but the UCP scuttled that plan shortly after their election in 2019. The UCP didn’t like the capacity market plan, which they claimed would be worse for consumers. The energy minister at the time, Sonya Savage, even accused the NDP of “fear mongering about blackouts and price spikes” if Alberta moved forward with a capacity market.
Fast forward a few years and it turns out that it wasn’t fear mongering at all. It was an accurate assessment of risk.
What about the coal plants?
Social media is not the most reliable place to source information and over this past weekend I found a dismaying number of instances of misinformation circulating about the cause of our high grid loads. The idea that the NDP shut down all our coal plants is easy enough to debunk. In fact, the majority of coal use in Alberta was shuttered because of regulations put in place by Stephen Harper. Yes, that Stephen Harper. There was a time, not that long past, when even conservative politicians admitted the need to reduce emissions and find cleaner sources of electricity. Of the remaining six coal plants that the NDP accelerated coal phase out on all six were in service over this past weekend. Most of these have transitioned to being natural gas plants, though two are still using coal.
What role does climate change play?
“Widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere have occurred. Human-caused climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe.” This is taken from the 2023 Climate Change Synthesis Report produced by the IPCC. Here in Alberta, we have seen climate change manifest in a number of ways. We know already that we are facing major drought conditions this coming spring/summer. Extreme heat, extreme cold, extreme dryness are all a direct result of climate change. The only question left is what will we do about it.
On Saturday, an emergency alert went out to all Albertans warning about the stress on our grid and asking people to reduce energy use. We weren’t being asked to return to the dark ages (as I saw one “snowflake” melting down about on X). No, we were simply being asked to manage peak demand time by slightly delaying things like drying a load of laundry or running the dishwasher. No surprise, Albertans answered the call and we saw an immediate drop in energy use. Which brings me back around to my opening comments about leadership.
These situations are an opportunity to step away from partisanship. A good leader would do just that. A good leader would leave their ideology behind. A good leader would simply provide calm and clear communication as necessary. I’m afraid that we just don’t have such a good leader at the helm here in Alberta.
I am glad you remember the Stephen Harper days, both as premier and prime minister of Canada. There were alot changes put in place at the time. The NDP government did not shut down the coal mines. Harper was an economist, one who manages and oversees where money goes, and governed the province and country accordingly to implement the changes. Shutting down coal mines was not entirely what was the intention. It was meant to look at alternative ways to provide power to Alberta. Alot has changed since then, not the same Conservative Party as then, not even Wild Rose for that matter. Albertans are dealing with a government that is reactive (without reviewing facts and relying on fiction) instead of proactive (looking at past decisions and actual history - which was recreated by Kenney as I recall). We are a province with so much potential but so little guidance since the opportunities in Parliament are thwarted by the UCP aiming their "guns" (rhetoric) at the federal leadership instead of bringing forward facts that can substantiate their opposition to decisions made at that level. We do not need a sandbox of children who are fighting over a toy instead of looking at making a better place to play so all can be successful in this country. Alberta is not a country on its own but part of a diverse nation that should be working together for the common good.