It turns out that the same day Alberta’s wind power flatlined, so did Saskatchewan’s. SaskPower delays its data reporting two days, which is why it took until Friday to find this out. Note that the 1.3 per cent output was the average for the entire day, meaning that it was even lower for part of the day.
Alberta’s electrical grid, with 3,618 megawatts of installed wind generation, was getting just 19 megawatts from wind at 7:26 a.m. on Wednesday. This is after several grid alerts in late November and throughout December.
For the second time in 2 days, 4th time in December, Alberta Electric System Operator declares a “grid alert” as the power system can’t keep up with demand. It’s too cold for the wind turbines. -31C at Lethbridge, -35 C at Pincher Creek
SaskPower delays its reporting of power output by two days. But it turns out that on Tuesday, Dec. 13, wind power production in Saskatchewan all but collapsed. Again. You’d think in winter, having reliable power might be a thing? But we are intent on building more, a lot more, wind and solar.
Pipeline Online column on Alberta’s two electrical grid alerts this past week. And it’s not even really cold there yet.
As evidenced twice this past week, the electrical grid can barely handle the demand we have, now, before we switch most of our transportation system to electric vehicles. What happens when half our cars and trucks are EVs? Then three-quarters? What happens when the wind doesn’t blow then? No one goes to work?
When will the other media take notice? When will they start to question this mad rush to wind and solar, and total adoption of electric vehicles? When will someone else in the Saskatchewan media declare “The emperor has no clothes?”
Alberta issues second grid alert in three days, as wind power generation collapses utterly, yet again, at suppertime.
On Tuesday going into Wednesday, Wind power production in Alberta dropped to 0.1 per cent of nameplate capacity. And it stayed at 2% or less for about 24 hours. Well, now we know Saskatchewan saw a substantial drop as well.