How did Alberta wind up facing blackouts in the extreme cold?
21 hours agoEric Worrall
Essay by Eric Worrall
h/t cedarsand: “… at this time of year, we don’t have any solar power … Over the last couple of days, the wind has dropped off dramatically. …”
How did Alberta wind up facing blackouts in the extreme cold? A Q and A with AESO
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Author of the article:
Jonny Wakefield
Published Jan 14, 2024
We hit the demand peak on Thursday and it looked like we were going to be fine, there was no indication that we were going to be in a situation where we might have to shed load like we did last night. Suddenly 48 hours later, there’s warnings of potential brownouts and blackouts. I’m wondering how we got from a fairly stable situation on Thursday to what we experienced last night and might experience again this evening?
With the extreme cold, we are seeing very, very high demand. We set an all-time record Thursday night, 12,384 megawatts. The key difference — and there’s never one single factor that puts us into a grid alert — it’s the extreme cold, we’ve had reduced imports and very little wind. And of course, when we get into the peak period from 4-7 p.m., at this time of year, we don’t have any solar power. So on Thursday, we were in a bit better situation, because we had strong wind, we had 1,200 megawatts approximately throughout the peak period from four to seven. So that really made a difference. Over the last couple of days, the wind has dropped off dramatically. We’ve also had a couple of natural gas plants, one is offline, and one is operating at reduced capacity.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/01/15/how-did-alberta-wind-up-facing-blackouts-in-the-extreme-cold/
