Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online
Wind turbines near Drumheller. Photo by Katrina Zinchuk
Alberta’s grid-scale wind generation fleet of 1,760 wind turbines and a total nameplate capacity of 5,688 megawatts was, once again, producing single digits in megawatts, and 0.1 per cent of capacity on Thursday, Sept. 11.
At 12:06 p.m., the province’s entire grid-scale wind fleet of 50 wind farms was producing just 6 megawatts of power out of a collective 5684 megawatts. Wind output floated around the 6-8 megawatt range for most of the following hour, and around 10 megawatts until 2 p.m.
This was Alberta power generation at 12:06 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 11. Wind output is highlighted. MC is maximum capacity in megawatts, TNG is total net to grid, and DCR is dispatched and accepted contingency reserve. AESO.
That’s according to minute-by-minute data provided by the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO), which can be found here.
Note the total wind capacity number has been reduced slightly from the previous 5,688 megawatts. That’s because a 4.5 megawatt wind turbine at the Halkirk 2 facility near Halkirk, Alta. saw its nacelle and blades end up on the ground on Nov. 8, 2024. The entire 122 megawatt facility has not contributed a single megawatt of power to the grid since then, according to Dispatcho.app, which logs data from the AESO. Indeed, according to Dispatcho.app, the entire facility only produced power to the grid for four days, from Nov. 4 to Nov. 8.
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This Nov. 18 photo by Edgar Oliver shows what was left of the T33 turbine at the Halkirk 2 wind farm. Photo by Edgar Oliver
Dispatcho notes, “Halkirk 2 (HAL2) is a 122 MW wind farm located on privately owned land about 5 km north of Halkirk 1 in the County of Paintearth.
“This asset is comprised of 31 Vestas V150-4.5 turbines and owned by Capital Power.”
This graphic shows the total wind output of the Halkirk 2 wind project since it first went online. It has only produced power for the first four days, and nothing since Nov. 8, when one turbine fell apart and landed on the ground. Dispatcho.app
In sharp contrast to a few days earlier, when on Sept. 8 AESO pool prices hit its maximum of $999.99 per megawatt-hour, the pricing around noon on Sept. 11 was $19.05 per megawatt-hour at noon at $20.51 at 1 p.m. Notably, solar output was providing 1,557 megawatts at 12:06 out of a capacity of 1,850 megawatts.
Alberta’s interties to the east and west are also an issue. Its 150 megawatt intertie to Saskatchewan is still down for the count, and not anticipated to be fully up until December. Its intertie to British Columbia appears to be derated megawatts due to maintenance.
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