Posted on 01/14/2024 1:05:01 PM PST by yesthatjallen
Albertans did the right thing Saturday night, unplugging enough that the provincial power grid was able to avoid resorting to a series of rotating power outages on a night when the wind-chill readings across the province threatened to drop to -50.
The Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) worked with the province to issue an Emergency Alert early Saturday evening, asking everyone to reduce electricity use to essential needs only, to lower the load on the province’s electrical grid, which had been running with a grid alert since 3:30 p.m.
Almost immediately, the AESO says there was a 100 megawatt (MW) drop in demand, which soared to a 200 MW reduction within minutes.
By 8:40 p.m., the Emergency Alert was ended.
“The province-wide response to the call for energy conservation was tremendous,” said Mike Law, President and CEO of the AESO, in a release. “On behalf of the AESO, I would like to extend my thanks to all Albertans who responded to the call for action, which ensured we didn’t have to progress to rotating outages, keeping our grid up and running for all Albertans.”
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at calgary.ctvnews.ca ...
dry run for data collection
Interesting reading...
https://www.aeso.ca/market/market-and-system-reporting/annual-market-statistic-reports/
And this explains a lot...
https://energyrates.ca/alberta/what-is-the-aeso-alberta-electric-system-operator-and-how-it-works/
Did everyone “do their part” and rush out to buy an EV?
Did everyone “do their part” and rush out to buy an EV?
Sounds like they need more solar panels
My daughter was apartment hunting last year and literally EVERY complex she visited used electric resistance heating (cheap to install, but uses a ton of power).
And, while I’m all for the generally hand-off approach of our government here in Texas, the bottom line is that if they’re not willing to assure us sufficient power for resistance heating in really cold weather, then they should be doing something about how apartments are heated - which means either heat pumps (which is not a big cost increase from the air conditioning we already have), or natural gas.
In any case, we’re about to get another test in a few days - let’s see how it works out.
In the days of the cave people, they had to huddle around fires after a day of hunting for food.
Today sporadic supply chain problems and the coming breakdowns of EV trucks may join the power grid breakdowns and bring back the old days. Yabba dabba doo.
Any fair discussion of electricity and the power grid in Alberta, Canada (and an alarming number of towns/cities across the U.S.) should include the subject of crypto mining, and Alberta’s desire to be a “hub for crypto mining.”
Alberta has already established itself as an attractive destination for cryptocurrency miners, who have set up a number of operations at various locations throughout the province. (The supercomputers used to mine for Bitcoin and other crypto tokens require vast amounts of low-priced power to be economical, so miners are often attracted to Alberta’s deregulated electricity system and abundant supply of natural gas).
What happens in the real world is that the crypto-grid ends up short-changing residential and business customers, by increasing energy prices and lowering the overall supply of energy available - as it genuflects to the almighty Bitcoin.
When they want to move into an area, crypto mining companies have developed the public relations concept of creating their own energy. Among these ideas is the solar farm.
Crypto mining facilities use such massive amounts of energy they could not build a plant or solar farm that would even come close to replacing the electricity they use.
They move into an area and throw enough money around, and the politicians say, "OK!" And the people - residential and business customers - suffer.
Crypto mining is a scourge on the planet.
electric resistance heating
I thought you were referring to some new tech, but electric resistance heating is just standard electric baseboard heating. Has long been seen as the worst way to do heating.
Hey Cannucks, don’t plug in those EVs.
“I thought you were referring to some new tech, but electric resistance heating is just standard electric baseboard heating. Has long been seen as the worst way to do heating.”
Yep, basically a giant toaster in your furnace. If you want to really your meter spin fast (for those without ‘Smart Meters’), just turn that system on - much more power than even AC.
Cue Edward G. Robinson in “Soylent Green”…
Ditto for a small plug-in strip heater. Instant heat but expensive.
Has long been seen as the worst way to do heating.
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Right... and has long been used for public housing because it is the cheapest thing to install.
Almost immediately, the AESO says there was a 100 megawatt (MW) drop in demand, which soared to a 200 MW reduction within minutes.
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Doggone it, that’s a lot of EV owners just waiting for the word that tomorrow is a day off for them!
Electricity!
In Alberta right now the cost of electricity is 10 times more expensive than surrounding systems and certainly in my part of the USA. Communism sucks.
I don’t know about it being 10 times, but it is roughly twice what I pay here in Texas based on Google numbers.
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