Premiers back green energy plan as cold weather strains Alberta’s power grid

Some Prairie region politicians are tasking Ottawa with a green energy plan amid bone-chilling temperatures, warning Alberta’s power grid won’t be able to rely on renewable energy as temperatures plummet They claim on social media that this shows that.

“Currently, very little electricity is generated from wind. When renewable energy is as unreliable as it is today, we need to increase the capacity of our natural gas plants to keep Albertans safe,” said Alberta’s Daniel Smith. The premier posted on social media Friday, shortly after the state’s power grid operator urged consumers to conserve electricity to protect the system. .

A day later, following a second grid alert warning of the possibility of rolling blackouts, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said the surplus electricity sent to Alberta comes from natural gas and coal-fired power plants. Posted.

“What the Trudeau government is telling us to shut down (we won’t shut down),” Moe said on Platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Alberta Power System Operator said no power outages were necessary after an emergency alert was sent to people’s phones shortly before 7 p.m., noting Albertans responded quickly.

At the time, temperatures in many parts of the state were close to -40 degrees Celsius.

Randy Boissonneau, Alberta’s only federal cabinet minister and one of the province’s two Liberal MPs, called the premier’s statement “a frivolous, false and partisan attack.” He argued that part of the problem was due to “decades of underinvestment in the grid.”

“Instead of tweeting nonsense about Canada’s climate plan, perhaps the prime minister should focus on the current emergency and then work with the federal government to address climate change,” the Edmonton MP said in an email. It can be done,” he said.

Winter weather continues in Canada, but some cold weather warnings have been lifted in British Columbia.

Alberta’s power grid operator blames the crisis in part on two idle natural gas generators and a lack of renewable energy due to the low winds and lack of sunshine this time of year.

Mr Smith threatens to use state sovereignty laws to challenge federal clean power regulations over Liberal deadline to reach net zero grid by 2035, target ‘unachievable’ did.

Calgary’s Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner blogged that if the power system is already collapsing under pressure, it likely won’t be able to cope with the “further extreme demands created by the Liberal regulations.” Posted on.

But a spokesperson for Environment Minister Stephen Guilbeault’s office said the federal government has always said “reliability and affordability are one of the drivers of how regulations are designed.”

“This regulation ensures that the state is never in a situation where it does not have reliable baseload, which is why it provides provisions to allow fossil fuel-burning plants to operate without carbon capture technology during peak usage or emergency situations. ” reads the emailed statement.

“It’s never true that we say, ‘We want to close the factory.'”

Andrew Leach, an energy economist at the University of Alberta, said Smith and Moe seem to be framing the debate as an either-or choice between natural gas and renewable energy. In practice, he argues, we need to combine energy sources, including increasing collaboration with other jurisdictions.

Modelers know that there are days when demand is high but renewable energy generation is low, he said. He pointed out that backup planning needs to be done in advance and it is the system operator’s job to do so.

“Whether it’s natural gas, whether it’s nuclear, whether it’s imported capacity, whether it’s battery storage, whether it’s geothermal. Nobody disputes that,” Leach said.

Jason Wang, senior energy policy analyst at clean energy think tank Pembina Institute, said Alberta needs to move forward with changes to market regulations to allow renewable energy storage to play a larger role. said.

Wang said Saturday that the battery was able to provide power for the first time during a grid event.

“Storage basically gave us a few more hours of time where we didn’t need grid alerts,” Wang says.

Wang said natural gas production also faces limits during frigid weather, but Alberta power plants are more likely to be under strain than Texas facilities that were strained during cold snaps that caused power outages in 2021. also said it was prepared for that scenario.

AESO spokesman Leif Solid said consumption fell by 100 megawatts within seconds after people received the alert Saturday night, and demand dropped another 100 megawatts within minutes. Ta.

“This was enough to make up for the shortfall we were facing and prevented rotating power outages,” Solid said in an interview Sunday.

AESO issued another grid alert Sunday afternoon, asking Albertans to limit their electricity consumption to essential uses until 8 p.m. to avoid the possibility of rolling outages.