Without it, nothing else matters.
I wrote this column nearly two weeks ago, and only shared it this morning. But it turns out this is playing out in real time, as I’m working on a big story about how SaskPower’s Poplar River Power Station is down, thus putting us out nearly 600 megawatts. This happened just as demand is spiking for air conditioning due to +30 temps this week. As a result, SaskPower is scrambling to reduce its internal demand, doing something called “load shedding.” Watch for that story once I’ve got it together.
A very good article. Ontario experienced a complete grid collapse in August, 2003. Much of the province had no electricity for at least a day after the collapse of August 10, 2003. Eastern Ontario and Quebec had a complete grid collapse in the great ice storm of 1998. Montreal and the rest of the St. Lawrence valley lost power for a week. There was some limited power coming into Montreal, just enough to keep the hospitals operating and the city water pumps working. Otherwise Montreal would have had to be evacuated.
That limited power? That was what was available from the nuclear power plant at Trois Rivieres. The very same one that the morons in the ruling Parti Quebecois decided they didn’t need any more in 2012, because the premier, Pauline Marois, was and is an idiot. Remember that the pequistes are all militant Greens.
What happens in Ohio doesn’t stay in Ohio. The 2003 outage was caused by tree branches in a Cleveland suburb. Not only do we have Canadian morons to worry about we are tied into the Northeast USA grid. In the city of Chatham the residents of Victoria Avenue fought for 3 years against the removal of their ‘stately maples’ lining the street. Anyone with even the smallest amount of tree knowledge could see ALL of the trees are 100 years old and ‘rotten to the core’. There should be some mechanism in place that those fools are the last to have their power restored because they didn’t want their precious, waiting for a strong wind to fall over trees removed.
Mostly wrong. The two-government inquire found that the 2003 grid collapse was directly the result of the overload of two First Energy transmission lines. This was conducted by the IEEE, an expert body on these matters and accepted by both governments because this was an international event. It had a knock-on effect into Michigan and Ontario.
I’m very familiar with “load shedding”. I experienced it first hand somewhere…. Where was that, now???? Oh ya! It was when I was in South Africa a couple years ago. Lovely memories of many candlelight dinners… and lunches and breakfasts.
Apparently it has gotten much, much worse in recent years. South Africa is rapidly sliding down the slippery slope to a failed state.
I hear they’re burning white people to stay warm.
load-shedding
noun
The act or process of disconnecting the electric current on certain lines when the demand becomes greater than the supply.
But….but….but… where will I plug in my EV? Gasp!
Haven’t you heard? They’re designing these things to feed power INTO the grid. So what happens in a few days? Grid is low, everyone’s car is low, then what? Doctors don’t get to go to hospitals?
If the grid stops, almost everything stops. Making a grid based on unreliable wind and solar plus trying to force the electrification of everything is a recipe for societal disaster.
Which is basically the message I’ve been trying to say for the last 1.5 years. Couldn’t agree more.
In case you haven’t already seen this, Bonneville Power Administration tracks overall load and generation across the Pacific Northwest. Wind performs exactly like you’d expect – not there when you need it the most.
https://transmission.bpa.gov/Business/Operations/Wind/baltwg.aspx
And you think this is by accident? Decisions made by stupid people who don’t know what they’re doing? People who have our best interests at heart but just have flawed visions of how to accomplish things? Hmmmm….that’s an interesting hypothesis.
I sort of understand politicians pushing for wind & solar. Politicians are, one, generally stupid, and two, their primary goal in life is to get elected and reelected. You do that by playing for votes. Dumb voters think windmills & solar panels will save the planet? Politician responds to that incentive by saying windmills & solar panels everywhere! And wins votes. Voters happy, politicians happy. Problems happen later? Politicians find a scapegoat and cast blame elsewhere. Not their fault! They did what voters wanted!
It’s the deafening silence of power system operators and knowledgeable electrical engineers that astounds me. These are the people that need to be saying, wait just a damn minute. We can work with a small number of wind & solar projects, but there’s a limit. These things can not power civilization. Not today, not tomorrow, never. There’s no magical battery fairy coming to save us.
Chasing the unicorn named “clean energy” WILL start causing brownouts in portions of this country within this decade, and the only province that seems to have the slightest inkling of the problem is Saskatchewan.
This country is proving itself too stupid to survive.
Is your arguement the same regarding immigration? Mass swaths of the population calling for more?
No. Green energy and immigration are being pushed by govt and a fringe minority of ultra-rich/corporations AGAINST the will of the majority.
It’s the deafening silence of power system operators…
The reason they’re silent is because they’re intent on cashing their subsidy cheques.
Engineers love money. They will do whatever they are asked to do in order to collect their commission.
I am a retired engineer so I know what I am talking about.
The problem is that the public don’t hear from the right people on this. When the media or politicians talk to Sask Power they talk to the CEO or other corporate spokespeople. They don’t ever talk to the people that are actually responsible with literally keeping the lights on. The plant operators, Lineman, etc.
Every corporation has been infested with yes people that are only interested and n corporate advancement and filling out their CV’s. Anyone that pushes back on the established narrative is quickly weeded out before they ever advance too far up the ladder. It’s the reason we’re seeing so much insanity and stupidity throughout government and the corporate world.
There are plenty of people at Saskpower that know carbon capture and renewables will never solve anything and in fact are an expensive mistake that is jeopardizing our grid reliability. It’s sucking up massive amounts of resources, both people and money.
Scott Moe and a trying to ride that thin line on this and is going to lose.
You miss Covid & the medical response?
And that is why any government that allows its jurisdiction to suffer from energy OR food shortages should be tarred and feathered in the public square.
– Underfunding maintenance and repair because of dividend payments to the government and the increasing cost of executive, administrative and management positions is incompetence
– Deliberately making your electricity system (generation and grid) dependant on unreliable, intermittent power is an act of sabotage.
Buying a generator that can at least keep your gas furnace running and a power outlet or two functional is worth the cost. It’s like buying insurance. We use ours a couple times per year.
Saskatchewan’s power production is less reliable as the coal plants age. New natgas power plants will help until we, hopefully, build SMRs. If they increase unreliable “green” power instead of natgas and nuclear, expect power outage/load shedding to be a more routine occurrence. The push for smart meters will be relentless in a desperate attempt to salvage the green dream of wind and solar energy.
The “green” freaks have to go. NOW.
There is no cure for stupid.
Electricity is the life blood of our luxurious lives.
We have benefited from the hard work and common sense of two generations of power engineers who built our infrastructure and operated these systems so well,that the average person has no experience of doing without ‘on demand’ electricity.
Due to this educational lack,we have allowed morons to impose their ideology ,to the point of system failure.
As an aside,every home owner/outpost cabin that relies on wind and solar,learns a valuable lesson.
You no longer have electricity ,on demand,a willing servant..
What you have, is you adjust your demands to suit the weather conditions or you fire up a genset.
You adjust your life to suit the limitations of the technology..
Very modern..
Gang Green have the same effect on a civil society,that gangrene has on a body..
Banishment , a form of amputation,is the only remedy.
For members of the Cult of Calamitous Climate,a.k.a Gang Green are living examples of “Made Stupid” and they like it.
A civilized,technological society cannot survive such fools being in decision making positions.
As we are learning and as the average citizen is yet to learn…
For in a society that believes.
“Water comes from the tap”,
Food from “The Grocery Store”
and “Electricity comes from the “Wall Plug””, such a society will not learn until they are freezing in the dark..
And to add the final insult..
If you invest in a back up generator,or even an inverter that runs off of your truck batteries,you had better invest in “Blackout Curtains” and sound suppression for your generator.
Because these same people will insist that it is “Unfair” for you to have comfort when they have none.
Especially when their discomfort is self inflicted.
Banishment of all Progressives” is our only hope.
I repeat: The government is not stupid, neither are the greens. They are hateful, greedy and malicious.
Fully agree.
The only idiots are their followers.
Was just about to read this when the power went out in Vonda.
During “load shedding”, governments should be first taken off line….so too should all the “green” companies.
I think we can all agree about the importance of grid reliability here. It’s the other 96% of humanity that need to understand the patently obvious. I can pretty much guarantee that 50% would rather see an end to fossil fuels and live through the poverty, starvation, deprivation, and ruthless chaos before questioning their institutionalized programming.
Then, by all means, indulge ’em. Two lists: 1. Gang Green. 2. Not. When shortages hit, Gang Green is first in line.
Cap Obvious
Religion has taught us that people will not question their belief, period!
I’m starting a new university. Some of the courses will include : cave decorating, starting fires with rocks, wheel carving, and running down large game with pointy sticks. Should be useful skills soon.
Corporate fascism is what they want to impose on the world population, just to increase they profits, at the expense of individual freedoms!