Santa gave Alberta free power again on Christmas and Boxing Day.
5 Replies to “Ho! Ho! Ho! Santa was good this Christmas”
Free power = perpetual motion machine (aka doesn’t exist). It’s a form of girl math.
Math is hard, Barbie!
Obviously Alberta has too much wind capacity for the grid to handle. Get rid of it.
From the linked article:
[…]
The pattern over Christmas reinforced several narratives. When Alberta wind power is in surplus, and it often only has to be in the 45 to 60 per cent output range for that to happen, pool prices often drop to zero.
[…]
Also, when wind power flatlines, Alberta will frequently import copious amounts of power, but at much, much higher prices. It really is frequently a case of buy high, sell low (or, over Christmas, give it away like Santa).
So, how does this affect the rates Albertans pay for power at the consumer level? Or, since the planet is on fire it does not matter.
Nothing is free as is implied by this author.
Look at the AESO (non-profit that operates and plans Alberta’s electricity system) website here https://www.aeso.ca/market/market-participation/ancillary-services/operating-reserve
There you will find the innocuous sounding phrase “ancillary markets”.
Digging deeper but not by much, you will find that AESO maintains Operator Reserve contracts with generators that spin.
They describe this as
” Spinning reserves are the fastest acting contingency reserve. Generators or loads providing spinning reserves are synchronized to the grid (the turbine is “spinning” but not generating power). This unique feature allows the reserve to be provided very quickly.”
Also from their website
Ancillary services products are procured through a separate market operated on an independent third-party platform. AS costs are recovered from load customers through the AESO tariff as part of their transmission costs.
So this author posts what wind farms get paid when they are generating electricity, but leaves out they also get paid when their power is not needed.
Free power = perpetual motion machine (aka doesn’t exist). It’s a form of girl math.
Math is hard, Barbie!
Obviously Alberta has too much wind capacity for the grid to handle. Get rid of it.
From the linked article:
[…]
The pattern over Christmas reinforced several narratives. When Alberta wind power is in surplus, and it often only has to be in the 45 to 60 per cent output range for that to happen, pool prices often drop to zero.
[…]
Also, when wind power flatlines, Alberta will frequently import copious amounts of power, but at much, much higher prices. It really is frequently a case of buy high, sell low (or, over Christmas, give it away like Santa).
So, how does this affect the rates Albertans pay for power at the consumer level? Or, since the planet is on fire it does not matter.
Nothing is free as is implied by this author.
Look at the AESO (non-profit that operates and plans Alberta’s electricity system) website here
https://www.aeso.ca/market/market-participation/ancillary-services/operating-reserve
There you will find the innocuous sounding phrase “ancillary markets”.
Digging deeper but not by much, you will find that AESO maintains Operator Reserve contracts with generators that spin.
They describe this as
” Spinning reserves are the fastest acting contingency reserve. Generators or loads providing spinning reserves are synchronized to the grid (the turbine is “spinning” but not generating power). This unique feature allows the reserve to be provided very quickly.”
Also from their website
Ancillary services products are procured through a separate market operated on an independent third-party platform. AS costs are recovered from load customers through the AESO tariff as part of their transmission costs.
So this author posts what wind farms get paid when they are generating electricity, but leaves out they also get paid when their power is not needed.