For three of four days last week, Alberta saw its wind power generation utterly collapse.

On Friday, May 12, Alberta’s wind generation fell to the lowest number Pipeline Online has seen in 17 months of following the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO). At 7:25 a.m., Alberta’s wind generation fell to 2 megawatts, out of a nameplate capacity of 3,618 megawatts installed, between hundreds of wind turbines across 36 wind farms, collectively costing billions of dollars.