Amidst the frigid cold-snap on the prairies over the weekend, Alberta started facing a crisis of its power grid, with emergency alerts going out to ask people to reduce consumption lest rolling blackouts start happening. People complied, and crisis was averted.
Q: Explain the electricity alert to me like I'm a fifth grader.
— Andrew Leach (@andrew_leach) January 14, 2024
Nevertheless, this gave the opportunity for certain premiers to try and blame this on clean energy rules, or to misconstrue those rules in the face of what took place over the weekend in order to tout how great coal is in order to score points, none of which helps anyone. But when your only calculus is to score points, well, that’s what politics has become.
If you check the AESO dashboard, all 6 of the affected units are in service right now. 3 fully converted to gas, 2 as coal but to be converted and expanded this spring, and one as dual fuel. Other coal units (battle river 3, Sundance, milner) were affected by Harper coal regs. 2/ pic.twitter.com/qxXKSFIriF
— Andrew Leach (@andrew_leach) January 14, 2024
Some of these dynamics are, of course, not unique to Alberta. The role of cheap gas can be seen by looking south of us, where coal use has been in steep decline despite a lack of Trudeau/Notley governance. pic.twitter.com/YnbS5OQtvn
— Andrew Leach (@andrew_leach) January 14, 2024
For the free market crowd: we all value reliability in our electricity system, right? A functioning market would reflect that in prices. We have a market that pays for energy by the hour with no reliability value other than in the very short term. You get that for which you pay.
— Andrew Leach (@andrew_leach) January 14, 2024
The free market isn't going to provide you with something just because you really want it. If you value something, put a price on it.
FYI, this is not an endorsement of the previous capacity market model. That would not have changed much.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
— Andrew Leach (@andrew_leach) January 14, 2024
SaskPower gen mix is only about 1/3 coal, Minister @DaleNally_AB pic.twitter.com/wrs3HeFWa4
— Andrew Leach (@andrew_leach) January 15, 2024
And, there is no rule against new gas plants. But, the UCP doesn't get to decide that. But, there was a policy that would have paid new plants for their reliability additions. Guess who scrapped it saying it wasn't needed?
— Andrew Leach (@andrew_leach) January 14, 2024
There are currently only two rules preventing the construction of new power plants in Alberta, one imposed by Stephen Harper and one imposed by Danielle Smith.
— Andrew Leach (@andrew_leach) January 14, 2024
Ukraine Dispatch:
Russia fired 37 missiles and three drones at Ukraine early Saturday, and only eight of those missiles were shot down, likely because of a deficit of air defence ammunition, and as a result, Dnipro and Chernihiv were struck. Meanwhile, Russians have been spending big on infrastructure projects in occupied territories to both draw closer links to Russian territory, but to convince people that they can better rebuild the territories.
❗️ 626 chemical attacks against Ukrainians have been carried out by Russia since the beginning of the large-scale war.
51 cases were recorded in January of this year alone. #RussianWarCrimes pic.twitter.com/bSiWenqS8k
— UkraineWorld (@ukraine_world) January 14, 2024
⚡Police: Russian strikes destroy granary in Kharkiv Oblast.
Russian forces struck grain silos in the town of Vovchansk in Kharkiv Oblast, destroying the grain inside, regional police investigator Serhii Bolvinov reported on Jan. 14.https://t.co/1tjrc4WNIY
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) January 14, 2024