Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online
If you thought Wednesday might have been an anomaly, with Alberta’s wind power generation producing 4.5 per cent of its nameplate capacity, that number fell even lower the following morning.
If you just finished your morning coffee in Alberta, your cup of joe was not warmed up by wind power. Well, no more than a couple drops were, as wind was contribution 0.1 per cent of Alberta’s energy load, or 1/1000 of Alberta’s energy load of 10,251 megawatts at that moment.
The Twitter handle Reliable AB Energy (@ReliableAB) posts hourly updates. And at 10:16 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 18, Alberta, wind was producing just 10 megawatts out of 2,589 megawatts of wind turbines connected to the grid.
At this moment 86.6% of Alberta's electricity is being produced by fossil fuels. Wind is at 0.4% of capacity and producing 0.1% of total generation, while solar is at 68.4% of capacity and producing 7.16% of total generation. At the same time we are importing 776 MW or 7.6% pic.twitter.com/09wiRFfWpo
— Reliable AB Energy (@ReliableAB) August 18, 2022
And an hour earlier, it was just 7 megawatts.
At this moment 87.1% of Alberta's electricity is being produced by fossil fuels. Wind is at 0.3% of capacity and producing 0.1% of total generation, while solar is at 59.0% of capacity and producing 6.31% of total generation. At the same time we are importing 786 MW or 7.8% pic.twitter.com/aRvFWXupiE
— Reliable AB Energy (@ReliableAB) August 18, 2022
By 11:07, wind had nearly quadrupled in output over the course of an hour. By that point it was putting out 37 megawatts, or 1.4 per cent of nameplate capacity. At that moment, 19 of the 28 wind farms connected to the grid were producing exactly zero power to the Alberta grid, according to the Alberta Electric System Operator. They post minute-by-minute updates of the entire grid, but SaskPower does not release such data publicly, so this is the closest analog of what may be happening to the Saskatchewan grid from time to time.
Alberta’s power generation, in megawatts, at 11:06 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 18. TNG means total net to grid, while MC means maximum capacity. All are in megawatts. Alberta Electric System Operator
That said, the two most recent additions, Wheatland (120 megawatts) and Forty Mile Granlea (200 megawatts), are new to the grid and may not be fully operational. But they are listed as connected. A similar thing occurred with the Travers solar facility – it was listed for several months before showing power to the grid. At that time, the Alberta Electric System Operator told Pipeline Online that Travers was connected.
Alberta’s wind power generation, in megawatts, at 11:06 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 18. TNG means total net to grid, while MC means maximum capacity. All are in megawatts. Alberta Electric System Operator
Alberta has, by far, more energy resources than any other province in Canada. Yet three minutes later, Alberta was drawing 722 megawatts from its neighbours – 482 megawatts from British Columbia, 142 megawatts from Montana, and 98 megawatts from Saskatchewan.
This is how much power, in megawatts, Alberta was drawing from its neighbours at 11:09 a.m. on Aug. 18. Alberta Electric System Operator
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