Starting with the NDP, and continuing under the UCP, coal fired power generation is being converted to natural gas. The coal mining operation next to the power plants are down to skeleton crews. Battle River power generation station is who I am going to talk about specifically.
Battle River and Sheerness are on the same natural gas pipeline. When something happens to the supply of natural gas both power generation stations go down. For example a compressor on the line going down in the -47 weather takes out both power plants. During last week Battle River received a call from the pipeline operator saying that they had to curtail the amount of natural gas in the pipeline. It is -47. The coal mining equipment has not been running. The coal handling facility at the power plant is all froze down. The electric dragline for uncovering coal cannot be started. Remember last week when level 1 and 2 emergencies were issued for the power grid? This is why. We have now made our power grid far more vulnerable to faults. Whereas coal fired, from coal mined next door at each plant, takes away that risk.
Wind and solar were non existent when we needed them most. We needed coal and it has been shuttered to the point were we couldn’t get it running quickly or at full capacity. This was only one week of a cold snap. We have made our lives far more vulnerable.
[…]
Addition #2: last week the cost of electricity was $900-$1000/mwh. The cost to the Alberta consumer was around $35. The spread of around $950/mwh was paid for from Tax dollars. I’m guessing here, but I think last week cost us over a half a billion dollars. That was added to the deficit. We have the capacity to produce the power, and up to 2016 we did. Our hands are tied with the large emitters carbon tax, so we can’t ramp up production when needed. Alberta pays. Montana benefits and makes a fortune off us.
All as the obscenity that is the massive wind farm at Pincher Creek continues to grow. This is how conservative governments fail, Mr. Kenney.
h/t CFH
Alberta traded PC Orange for NDP Orange for UCP Reds.
Paul Hinman was Alberta’s last true elected conservative.
Another Issue
Generating stations send power to pretty far away places. Those destinations may well have a natural gas supply in good working order.
It is a fair bet most people now have “modern eco” natural gas fired furnaces.
Even if you have a gas supply, with no electric power your “energy saving” furnace will not run. It cannot make heat w/o power.
They need electric power to ***first*** run an exhaust blower. Only when flow is established can it ***then call for electric power*** which is used to ignite the gas burner & run the main fan.
Old furnaces had a pilot light to ignite the burner gas. They made heat which would move through a house or office by convection. The main blower didn’t run w/o power. It could get cool around the edges. But some heat beats none!
How much does it cost to repair frozen burst water lines in an average house?
GAS FIREPLACE? — Probably most “modern” units have a similar problem.
No, even the old furnaces needed power. There’s a small transformer to operate the solenoid valve to turn the gas on, and that circuit is controlled by the thermostat. Without power, that gas won’t come on. Only the pilot will continue to burn, and it sure ain’t gonna heat the house.
You can’t fix stupid.
UCP will continue with the Dippers idiotic strategy. Power will fail. People will suffer as a result. Dippers will point the finger at the UCP with cheerleading media concurring.
The left has no problem erasing any and all evidence of previous more conservative regimes but “conservatives” act more like ratchets that lock-in statist progression and then slow the growth of the state rather than reverse it. Politicians in power have bureaucracies to “manage”. It’s natural to assume power and then suffer a form of Stockholm Syndrome surrendering to the notion that to contain or shrink rather than “manage” is a form of failure. They mistakenly think that they run the state rather than vise versa. For the left that is normal and in conformance with their goals to grow the state. For “conservatives” it is a source of frustration for their base and means by which the media and other opponents can weaken, undermine and co-opt them.
Why don’t those coal plants have a one week supply of coal on hand for emergencies such as that mentioned above?
Mistaken? You keep voting for them. You keep buying memberships. You keep sending donations.
You keep using that word; I do not think it means, what you think it means.
If you want correct behavior, only reward the behavior you deem to be correct.
“…“conservatives” act more like ratchets that lock-in statist progression and then slow the growth of the state rather than reverse it…..”
Yup, that’s pretty much it, John. All our so-called Conservative governments manage to do is slow down the swirling in the toilet bowl a wee bit.
As has been said before, if you’re looking for Kenney to lead you to some promised land, you’re going to be deeply disappointed. His entire life has been one of backroom deals, and keeping power at all costs. The UCP or whatever name they slag you with is always going to be a party of opportunists.
let me find tune yer comment I J, ….thump thump KatholiK thump. Kenny the irish libtard!!!
He served his purpose….boot out the NDP. Were there any other alternatives? It’s up to us to steer him to what WE want afterwards. He doesn’t, boot him, and don’t wait for the next election. If you feel so strongly about it then run for office.
OK, who are we going after when people start to freeze to death? I for one am on record as saying I will take everything any politician has that causes anyone to starve or freeze to death. That would include the moron who is taxing every breath you take.
Start by refusing to pay any “carbon tax”. They don’t “own” us yet, but they’re getting close.
PO, please explain the mechanism by which we will be able to do such a fanciful thing. By the way “they” do own us no matter our bleating against it. Try and do something that does not have the ugly thumbprint of one level or another of government on it.
Good old central planning.
Most grids chug along at or near capacity.
The Canadian population is rising by a million people every 2 years or so but is the critical infrastructure meeting the demand?
I don’t know, but I do know everyone is awash in debt from municipalities to provinces and the feds send over 6 billion a year – every year – out of the country.
What about “Mr. Wall”, and “Mr. Moe”.
In a double blind test, would you be able to pick out any differences in the energy policies between the NDP, Sask party, and UCP in BC, Alberta, and Saskatchewan?
Mr. Kenney says he is a “nationalist”, The Prime Dullard, stated Canada is the first post nation state. How can Jason be a nationalist when we are post nation? If Kenney has any integrity he will adopt the Donald Trump model of operating, stop the subsidys to this insanity of windmills and solar cluttering up the landscape. Millions of tons of concrete and steel, and copper and aluminum , and gravel on access roads and trucking, bunker burning ocean vessels delivering to ports the parts, being hauled to site by diesel trucks, groundwork by diesel burning construction machinery, plastic parts from the oil industry, etc etc. We know coal, hydro, nuclear, nat gas work. How can we have so many stupid politicians? There is no Santa, or tooth fairy, just like there is no “climate change” no matter how many times 1400 dollar a month urnalists tell us there is. When I see a solar and wind powered Kenworth loaded with chinese steel for the windmills, topping the Rogers Pass on its way to Pincher Creek, I will eat my words.
Kenney is looking more and more like Prentice 2. Very progressive not so much conservative. And apparently beholden to someone other than the voters who gave him a mandate to stand up for Albertas energy industry.
Every day that passes that Kenney does not go nuclear on the forces that are attempting to put Alberta out of business, is another day lost, and another day that the whole fraud becomes more entrenched and established.
Maybe thats Kenneys goal. Sure looks like it.
Ward, out of school Kenny went to work for the liberal party, and then for Goodale.
Reposted What Lance wrote to the Premiers Web mail with some extra things of my own.
More and More I am not at all liking this UCP govt.
Zero % DECREASES in UNION PAY
Zero % DECREASES in #’s of Unionized workers & Bloated management.
Those two account for fully 85+% of Annual Govt Budget
ZERO movement towards Firewall.
…you’ve had 8 months and to date have accomplished SWEET dick ALL.
And now to find YOU will continue to de-mobilize the remaining Coal plants ..?? When anyone with a smidgeon of intellect knows full well CO2 is not an issue & that Man made Climate Change is a total LIE – perpetrated to Destroy Capitalism and the Cheap Energy Supply that allowed it to thrive. Just Ask Christina Figueres maybe.??
So tell me, what the Fk are YOU Good for anyway Mr. (Nationalist – Globalist), Jason Kenney – Premier of Alberta..hmmmm?
Just another I’m in it for myself, quasi LEFTIST – Fake Conservative – Fake Albertan.
Was it Kenney who promised the Firewall? I don’t recall anything in the UCP platform about a firewall?
I had hoped a few months back, hoped I would be able to disagree with sentiments such as steakman’s. Hoped but strongly suspected it would not be.
That hope is gone, Kenney has had his chance, suspicion has been confirmed. More than enough time to at least signal he was going to act with some initials laws.
Nothing.
We need someone else.
If you’re surprised by any of this you’re not very bright.
Sounds like the kind of thing that happens in Third World countries. Right down to the graft angle of it.
If you believe that a particular flavour of government has other than minor influence on policy you are sadly mistaken. Policy is determined by the long standing bureaucracy and the consultants and lobbyists that snake their way into it with the fashionable thinking du jour. A change in government might slow down initiatives but they remain on the back burner only to emerge in a slightly altered form but still with the same intent. I worked in the AB civil service 30 years ago and can recall senior managers and the ADM stating that the purpose of the civil service was to “enlighten stakeholders” and to balance the power structures. Serving the public was not high up on the list of priorities. Today this is called the deep state. Like the coal seams under the Alberta prairies it runs deep and is infinite. Other than a core of senior minister (usually lawyers) most ministers in junior departments didn’t have two brain cells to rub together to generate a spark of an idea. At that time they often were farmers, used car salesmen or farm implement dealers. They were elected because they were popular locally, had the gift of the gab or held stuff over the locals. They were easily manipulated by the deep state.
You see the same thing today there and in other provinces.
Straight up. When Harper and the Cons got in the bureaucracy in Ottawa were telling them how things were, are and shall be. The resistance was wall-like. They control the air, sea and land. See them cheer when PM Dickspank got in? I don’t even think a cataclysm would remove the grasp. The higher-ups make boo coo dollars with a platinum pension and then consulting gigs for a post retirement bonus.
GregN exactly, and many religious people fall right in line also, how many times has some one said to me, lets do it, just in case, and if wrong, no damage done
Drove to fernie in september to fish the elk river , went through pincer creek , there was exactly one windmill out of the thousands moving . This is the biggest scam in the history of the world
This is a supply problem. They need to build additional natural gas supply lines to the power plants. Since the pipelines wouldn’t cross any provincial or national borders, it shouldn’t be too difficult. Reliable electricity systems need a certain amount of redundancy to handle weather, maintenance and other situations.
I worked in a coal power plant. They aren’t the death machines that environmentalists make them out to be but natural gas plants are a cleaner and healthier work environment (arguably cheaper, too).
I’d prefer a combo of hydro, SMR nuclear and natgas power plants.
LC, you need 100% redundancy, when you have vulnerable supplies in essential infrastructure!
I’m not sure I’d call natural gas power stations vulnerable. Pipelines are pretty reliable. Compressor stations are reliable. The natural gas supply is abundant. It helps that Saskatchewan has natural gas storage caverns. It’s just making sure supply can meet demand even with the occasional hiccup. A redundancy of pipelines going to the plant is what I meant.
Coal plants can have fuel supply issues too. Particularly in wet weather when machinery has difficulty getting in and out of the pits and using limited stockpiles is required. Or at the power plants when trains, hoppers, motors, conveyor belts etc. broke down.
There is no perfect system. Coal and natural gas power plants are equal in cost and reliability, imo.
Everyone keeps complaining that “Kenney is not doing what we wanted”.
What have you done to punish the behavior that you do not like?
What have you done to reward the behavior that you do like?
You are training a dog. If you give it treats whether it comes when called or not, whether it goes outside to poop or not, whether it bites you or not, … What did you expect?
ha ha ha !!!
good analogy from a long time dog owner.
Im confused.
according to Alberta, who is it supposed to “freeze in the dark”?
https://books.google.ca/books/about/Let_the_Eastern_Bastards_Freeze_in_the_D.html?id=sfRvDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
forget wexit. your lumping in with socialists isles and the duo the bitch and the balls-less. call it what it is the independent party. start with a constitution that limits the size of government to 5% of population. this has to be rigoursly applied to any person who receives money from government. along with this to keep pol’s honest it needs to be made a criminal offence for any one to lie for political gain. getting the education industry back in line would also help. I think BC Alberta and Saskatchewan and probably Manitoba would do splendaciuosly on our own.
I live on Vancouver Island and I want in.
kenney?
oh look at the CONservatists among us. they’re so disappointed when a CONservatist polllllitiSHUN crapped on them.
when are you people going to learn the true nature, the rock bottom REAL and PROVEN nature of politics and those on the inside?
hmmmm?
google ‘wishful thinking’ for starters.
Between Battle River generating station and Sheerness Generating station is a large wind farm. I have driven through the area numerous times and observed all the windmills are standing still. Wind too strong? Wind not strong enough? Wind not needed? In the mean time you can see the steam plume from Battle River station to the north. Always strikes me as being funny. Sadly the coal seam there is 6 ‘ thick and the overburden is about 30 feet thick. Someone once explained that you could strip mine coal economically if the ration was 1′ of coal for every 30’ of overburden. Since the generating stations are basically in the middle of the mine transportation cost is very very low.
Yer average citizen ain’t going to understand this ,until the lights go out.
Freezing in the dark is highly educational,a simple lesson from the school of hard knocks.
A “good education” is usually expensive,well this generation is getting “educated” good and hard.
Governments claimed they had to control the utilities,for the good of the people, except then they realized what a cash cow,the consumer can be.
When you steal through such proxies.
Double plus good.
The citizens and electricity users are both getting hosed here,but certain well connected persons are making out like bandits..
Oh wait,they are bandits,using the force of government to steal even more.
Ain’t Kleptocracy Grand?
Kenneth spent too long in Ottawa
It’s not Edmonton Dome disease
He’s got Ottawa drone disease
We never learn— Germany went through this political correctness 12 to 13 years ago ! And guess what they are backing up their grid with CLEAN COAL !
Back up your own system with a wood burning stove!
The problem with this article is it seems to imply that LNG is replacing coal due to the carbon tax. This just isn’t so. While the tax may contribute, gas is replacing coal all over North America. It’s a very one-sided battle. This seems to correlate with a large reduction in deaths. Coal may be actually a lot more polluting than we thought. Obama’s ‘War on Coal’ never actually came to fruition but maybe it should.
who left the rat hole door open an let UnIq in?