Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online
Morse Wind Power Facility on Oct. 13, 2026. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
One of the arguments proponents of wide-scale wind power generation is that if it’s not blowing here, it’s blowing somewhere. So if you build enough transmission lines, there should be enough wind power, right?
Not really
The late afternoon into evening of Nov. 1 saw little appreciable wind for power generation across not just Alberta, but Saskatchewan and to an extent, Manitoba’s wind farms, too.
Remember, wind farms are built in areas considered the most prone to consistent wind output. While there may have been wind in northern areas of these provinces, that’s not where the turbines have been built, to date. And indeed, according to Windy.com, even the northern regions of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba were only seeing up to10 knots wind.
Pipeline Online receives email alerts whenever wind power generation conditions in Alberta hit certain criteria. One of those was when total wind output in Alberta falls below 10 megawatts (out of a total nameplate capacity of 5,684 megawatts).
That email came in at 4:30 p.m. And at 4:31, this screenshot from the minute-by-minute data provided by the Alberta Electric System Operator showed wind output at 10 megawatts.
MC is maximum capacity, in megawatts. TNG is total net to grid. DCR is dispatched, and accepted, contingency reserve. This was at 4:31 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026 AESO
While the pool price for power in Alberta was still relatively low at that moment, as the supper peak demand hit, prices soared to $553.43 per megawatt-hour.
Usually when that happens, Saskatchewan via SaskPower will sell power into the Alberta grid and make bank, as it were. But this was not the case Sunday evening. SaskPower was purchasing 101 megawatts at the time, at that very high price, too. So what’s up?
- 0136 CIC - SK Energy Security Awareness0136 CIC - SK Energy Security Awareness
- 0135 SASPO-2988_Self serve_2026_YouTube0135 SASPO-2988_Self serve_2026_YouTube
- 0121 Ministry of Energy and Resources April 20260121 Ministry of Energy and Resources April 2026
- 0134 SASPO-2956_ Safety 20260134 SASPO-2956_ Safety 2026
- 0133 LC Trucking hiring Class 1A Payden0133 LC Trucking hiring Class 1A Payden
- 0132 UMWA 20260132 UMWA 2026
- 0129 Turnbull drivers operators0129 Turnbull drivers operators
- 0128 OSY Rentals updated0128 OSY Rentals updated
- 0126 Steel_Reef_Promo_0126 Steel_Reef_Promo_
- 0118 IBEW 30 sec0118 IBEW 30 sec
- 0114 Prospera Bold Vision0114 Prospera Bold Vision
- 0113 Miller Epic Cinematic Hollywood trailer0113 Miller Epic Cinematic Hollywood trailer
- 0102 Lori Carr Coal Extended0102 Lori Carr Coal Extended
- 0099 Mryglod Steel 1080p0099 Mryglod Steel 1080p
- 0095 Fast Trucking nearly 70 years good at it0095 Fast Trucking nearly 70 years good at it
- 0046 City of Estevan This is Estevan Teaser0046 City of Estevan This is Estevan Teaser
- 0077 Caprice Resources Stand Up For Free Speech0077 Caprice Resources Stand Up For Free Speech
- 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
- 0032 IWS Summer hiring rock trailer music
- 0022 Grimes winter hiring
- 0018 IWS Hiring Royal Summer
- 0013 Panther Drilling PO ad 03 top drive rigs
- 0002 gilliss casing services0002 gilliss casing services
- 9002 Pipeline Online 30 sec EBEX9002 Pipeline Online 30 sec EBEX
- 9001
A simple explanation could be found at weather site Windy.com. At 9:40 p.m. Windy.com was showing at Herbert (site of the Blue Hill Wind Facility) as 4 knots. Several other wind farms are nearby. Assiniboia, site of the Golden South Wind Facility, was also 4 knots, Kipling, site of the Bekevar Yotin Wind Facility, was showing 3 knots. Grenfell and Moosomin showed 2 and 3 megawatts, respectively, meaning that none of Saskatchewan’s grid-scale wind facilities totaling 817 megawatts capacity from border to border had much wind to speak of. So Saskatchewan was nearly entirely dependent on natural gas, coal and hydro, in that order.
Alberta was showing low wind output at the same time, although it had grown to 109 megawatts by 9:44 p.m.
And in Manitoba, things weren’t much better. St. Leon and Letellier, Manitoba’s sites for its two wind farms, had 8 and 9 knots during the same time period. It’s just above the threshold typical turbines begin to generate power. That’s enough to create some wind power generation, but not a lot, and certainly not enough to backfill Saskatchewan and Alberta’s shortfalls.
SaskPower also publishes its Where Your Power Comes From, with data delayed by two days and showing 24 hour average output per generation category. And on Friday, Oct. 30, a similar situation was occurring within Saskatchewan. Notably wind output was 70 megawatts out of a capacity of 808 megawatts, providing 2 per cent of total power generation overall.
Power generation in Saskatchewan on Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. SaskPower.
While wind’s output was low, what’s more significant is that natural gas and coal capacity were running at some of the highest numbers Pipeline Online has seen in some time, with natural gas providing 1,400 megawatts, or 45 per cent of total generation, and coal running at 1,254 megawatts, or 40 per cent of total generation. That combined number, 85 per cent for fossil fuel-fired power generation, is one of the highest numbers Pipeline Online has observed in years. The highest percentage Pipeline Online has observed was 88 per cent, split evenly between natural gas and coal. And it’s also one of the highest numbers seen for coal in several years, both as a percentage of total generation and gross output in megawatts.
This is happening as Great Plains Power Station is down for several months. The Moose Jaw natural gas-fired power station has been offline for several weeks as its turbine has been sent to Georgia for servicing, under warranty by Siemens, according to Minister of Crown Investments Corp Jeremy Harrison. He explained the situation at the tail end of the Pipeline Online Podcast on Oct. 16, which you can watch here.
- 0136 CIC - SK Energy Security Awareness0136 CIC - SK Energy Security Awareness
- 0135 SASPO-2988_Self serve_2026_YouTube0135 SASPO-2988_Self serve_2026_YouTube
- 0121 Ministry of Energy and Resources April 20260121 Ministry of Energy and Resources April 2026
- 0134 SASPO-2956_ Safety 20260134 SASPO-2956_ Safety 2026
- 0133 LC Trucking hiring Class 1A Payden0133 LC Trucking hiring Class 1A Payden
- 0132 UMWA 20260132 UMWA 2026
- 0129 Turnbull drivers operators0129 Turnbull drivers operators
- 0128 OSY Rentals updated0128 OSY Rentals updated
- 0126 Steel_Reef_Promo_0126 Steel_Reef_Promo_
- 0118 IBEW 30 sec0118 IBEW 30 sec
- 0114 Prospera Bold Vision0114 Prospera Bold Vision
- 0113 Miller Epic Cinematic Hollywood trailer0113 Miller Epic Cinematic Hollywood trailer
- 0102 Lori Carr Coal Extended0102 Lori Carr Coal Extended
- 0099 Mryglod Steel 1080p0099 Mryglod Steel 1080p
- 0095 Fast Trucking nearly 70 years good at it0095 Fast Trucking nearly 70 years good at it
- 0046 City of Estevan This is Estevan Teaser0046 City of Estevan This is Estevan Teaser
- 0077 Caprice Resources Stand Up For Free Speech0077 Caprice Resources Stand Up For Free Speech
- 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
- 0032 IWS Summer hiring rock trailer music
- 0022 Grimes winter hiring
- 0018 IWS Hiring Royal Summer
- 0013 Panther Drilling PO ad 03 top drive rigs
- 0002 gilliss casing services0002 gilliss casing services
- 9002 Pipeline Online 30 sec EBEX9002 Pipeline Online 30 sec EBEX
- 9001