Sask fossil fuels power Alberta past cold snap crisis

In accordance with the AESO, Albertans responded to the disaster themselves by decreasing their energy consumption shortly after the alert.

“Nearly instantly after the alert was issued, the AESO noticed a major 100 (megawatts) drop in electrical energy demand, which amounted to a 200 (megawatts) discount inside minutes. The Grid Alert was declared ended at 8:40 p.m.,” the AESO reported Saturday night.

On Saturday, AESO additionally requested Albertans to attenuate their energy consumption once more from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday.

The AESO issued one other grid alert on Sunday at 4:15 pm that mentioned, “Excessive energy demand as a result of excessive chilly, two giant pure fuel generator outages and really low renewable energy on the system have prompted the AESO to declare a Grid Alert.”

If one clicks on the alert now, they’re taken to the AESO homepage that says the grid alert ended at 10:12 pm on Sunday. Mockingly, the function article on the homepage is entitled “Enhanced Wind and Photo voltaic Forecasting Strengthens Day by day Grid Operations.”

“AESO introduces new wind and photo voltaic forecasting charts, enhancing utilization of renewable energy technology, dispatch effectivity and system reliability,” the subtitle explains.

In a 2021 chilly snap in Texas, gas-fired energy vegetation failed as a result of regulators insisted that the vegetation use renewable energy in its personal operations. Ian Madsen, senior coverage analyst with the Frontier Centre for Public Coverage, told The Epoch Times the “silly” laws have been made for “greeny causes.”

“Texas had ample pure fuel that they may have used, however the silly regulatory authorities for greeny causes insisted that the fuel vegetation that feed into the pipelines be powered by electrical energy [from wind turbines, not directly by gas]. With all of the wind energy out, they didn’t have sufficient electrical energy, and there wasn’t sufficient fuel fired-electricity as a result of they didn’t have the electrical energy to run the fuel vegetation,” Madsen mentioned.

The Texas storms left greater than 4.5 million houses and companies with out energy. An estimated 246 to 702 deaths occurred as a result of disaster, with a minimum of US$195 billion in injury triggered.

The Western Commonplace has requested the AESO what led to Alberta’s pure fuel generator failures however has not but acquired a response.