Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online
Wind turbines in southern Alberta. Photo by Clive Schaupmeyer
Alberta’s 1,760 wind turbines with a nameplate capacity of 5,684 megawatts were producing just 1 megawatts at 11:52 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 2. Thsoe 1,760 grid-scale turbines costing billions of dollars were collectively producing as much power as two generators in a seacan.
A 500 kilowatt generator from Estevan-based Smart Power.
That’s according to minute-by-minute data published online by the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO).
That’s six days almost to the minute after a similar event occured the previous week. In that instance, the number fell to 7 megawatts. And that was just hours before the signing of a memorandum of understanding was signed between Alberta and the federal government which would not only pave the way for pipeline(s) to be built to the BC coast, but also exempt the province from the federal Clean Electricity Regulations. Those regulations seek to eliminate the burning of fossil fuels from power generation.
Only one of Alberta’s 50 wind farms were producing any power to the grid at all. Forty Mile Granlea, with a capacity of 220 megawatts, was producing the lonely megawatt.
At the moment wind output fell to 1 megawatt, or 1.759 e-4 (the Windows calculator had to go into scientific notation to show a fraction that small), natural gas was providing 10,137 megawatts of Alberta’s 10,579 megawatts of net interal generation. That was 95.8 per cent. The previous week’s event saw that fraction at 97 per cent.
(3.518 e-4 is 0.01759 per cent, roughly one fifth of one tenth of one per cent.)
The number floated between 2 and 7 megawatts for at least 50 minutes while Pipeline Online was writing this story. It hit 2 again at 11:34.
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All ten of Alberta’s grid-scale batteries were brought to the ready as dispatchable contingency reserve, but as of time of writing, none had been called into service for the previous 24 hours.
Despite the flatlined wind output and zero solar output, Alberta was not importing much power and was in fact exporting to Montana. It was importing 152 megawatts form Saskatchewan (near the maximum amount), another 14 megawatts from British Columbia, and sending 90 megawatts south to Montana. The pool price for power had risen to $152.98 per megawatt-hour.
At 11 p.m. it was -11 C in Edmonton, -6 C in Calgary, -21 in Fort McMurray. Pincher Creek, the area with the most wind development, reported winds of 9 kilometres per hour, according to Windy.com and Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Notably, Halkirk 2, which went offfline in November, 2024 after producing power for only a few days has been restored to operation almost exactly one year later. It was shut down after a nacelle fell off its mast, taking its blades with it. Halkirk 2 started producing power again on Nov. 25 at a minimal level, then picked up steam on Nov. 28. But like 47 other wind farms on late Dec. 2, it wasn’t producing power, either.
Pipeline Online editor and owner Brian Zinchuk will be on the Evan Bray Show on CJME/CKOM at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 3. There’s a lot to talk about with that Alberta-Canada MOU on pipelines, and the impact on Saskatchewan.
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- 0102 Lori Carr Coal Extended0102 Lori Carr Coal Extended
- 0100 Turnbull Project Manager0100 Turnbull Project Manager
- 0099 Mryglod Steel 1080p0099 Mryglod Steel 1080p
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- 0061 SIMSA 2024 For Sask Buy Sask0061 SIMSA 2024 For Sask Buy Sask
- 0051 JML Hiring Pumpjack assembly0051 JML Hiring Pumpjack assembly
- 0049 Scotsburn Dental soft guitar0049 Scotsburn Dental soft guitar
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