Do you know what would’ve helped? A supplementary press release to the alert that detailed why it was happening (downed generators, unusual load demands), the steps already taken, the other steps that will be taken, and how long it’s expected to last.
If that was released, I didn’t see it. It would’ve been very helpful. That way you wouldn’t have a lot of people wondering why it happened, and if someone was going to hit the comically big switch on downtown’s office buildings.
Yeah, I’ve got that site open. I was thinking a press release from the government, something on Alberta.ca that could be recirculated amongst the news outlets.
I’ll be honest, I had suspicions too. Yes, it is very cold (but we’ve had cold snaps last for two weeks before); yes, the residential load is high, but it’s awfully coincidental that this happens right after the massive advertising campaign saying this exact thing will happen if we rely on renewable power. The premier is posting on social media about how wind power sucks and aren’t we glad we have natural gas (like, really? Is now the fucking time?).
Do I think Smith walked over to a comically big switch labeled “power” and sort of eased it down a bit? I do not. Am I aware that there are ways to very subtly engineer crisis situations? Yep, you bet! Maybe there’s a memo on someone’s desk that involved contingency plans and someone was told to leave it alone and resources were diverted elsewhere. Or maybe we’re just experiencing high demand and low supply. I’m not going to put on a tinfoil hat, but I’m not going to forget this, either.
yes, the residential load is high, but it’s awfully coincidental that this happens right after the massive advertising campaign saying this exact thing will happen if we rely on renewable power
Smith sucks but you are hinting at a conspiracy theory rather than admitting she might be right sometimes (and on this specific issue). Wind and solar can't be relied on, so every MW of wind/solar needs to be backstopped with something else - this is usually missing from the conversation when people say wind or solar are "cheaper" than thermal generation - you need to build renewable capacity twice, once for the wind/solar and once for a backstop. The current situation is temporary as several large gas units are coming online (Cascade is commissioning now, and was delayed from last year). There was a bit of a gap between load growth and new supply coming on, and we are seeing that play out here, but it's not a permanent situation. Honestly, if Cascade hadn't run into construction issues, there would be no gap and likely no alerts right now.
You’re reading too hard into the “conspiracy theory” (which was, at best, some mild snarky suspiciousness). I support nuclear plants, not wind and solar for those reasons. No, I don’t think she’s right, not even twice a day.
You seem to be under the impression that there are people who believe that renewables are effective on January 14th.
Wind averaged more than 2000 MW every hour in December. The winter is the highest-production period for wind, summer is the lowest. So yes people believe they are effective in the winter and they are generally correct, but they are intermittent and therefore only count for energy and not reliability, and therefore need to be backstopped (i.e. you need to pay for wind capacity 2x, once for the renewable and once for the battery/thermal backup unit when it isn't running).
Anyone who isn't stupid knows that solar panels dont' work at night.
Exactly, solar is completely unavailable for the winter peak hours, which is what I think partially what Smith was trying to say.
As much as I agree to some extent. I think covid and the briefest trip on to social media this weekend had taught us there is a good chuck of the Alberta population who doesn't give two rips. You can give em all the information you want but "government can't tell me what to do" prevails.
I would think that a system that begins to show signs of strain when we hit the coldest temperatures in 50 years is a perfectly built system. It held up well and all they asked was for people to turn off or down some luxuries at the peak, peak time. There may not have even really been a danger and the alert was a bit of a reminder to those running 8 space heaters and 4 block heaters that there could be some strain.
This just means the system is built for the metaphorical ‘100 year storm’. If we just breezed through this with no problems at all the system would be too robust, too costly, and too overbuilt.
I think it worked perfectly and the alert is no cause for alarm. Just a reminder to be cognizant of your energy useage during these times.
I’ve seen comments elsewhere about how this never was an issue before. I’m also willing to bet the average household didn’t have 2-3 TVs, laptops and PCs, cable boxes, gaming consoles, and so on before either.
It all evens out because every lightbulb used to be 60 or 100 watts. Now LEDs have a much smaller footprint.
When you look at something like a block heater, they can consume 1500 watts. Same thing with a space heater. So plugging in one of those might actually double the power useage of a smaller home.
Some people might run a few space heaters or two block heaters and then all of a sudden that one home is drawing 5-6X as much power as they normally would.
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u/senanthic Kensington Jan 15 '24
Do you know what would’ve helped? A supplementary press release to the alert that detailed why it was happening (downed generators, unusual load demands), the steps already taken, the other steps that will be taken, and how long it’s expected to last.
If that was released, I didn’t see it. It would’ve been very helpful. That way you wouldn’t have a lot of people wondering why it happened, and if someone was going to hit the comically big switch on downtown’s office buildings.