Province's emergency alert to conserve power only the beginning

Alberta’s unprecedented emergency alert over the weekend warning residents to reduce power consumption or face rolling blackouts as temperatures dropped below -45 C in parts of the province offers a taste of what’s to come if Ottawa pushes ahead with its net-zero timeline.

Demand for electricity in the province reached an all-time high on Thursday, but supply was able to keep pace until a cold weather system that gripped much of western North America led to a confluence of events that threatened to destabilize the grid.

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On Friday, wind generation ground to a halt due to a lack of wind and frigid temperatures, which makes wind turbines unsafe to operate. Neighbouring British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Montana were also in a deep freeze, which limited their ability to export power. A couple thermal generators shut down due to the weather and mechanical issues, while two gas-fired power plants also went offline due to maintenance and weather-related issues.

As a result, the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) issued four alerts over four days. The greatest threat occurred on Saturday evening, which prompted the Alberta Emergency Management Agency to send an alert asking residents to conserve power by turning off lights, cooking with microwaves instead of electric ovens, powering down space heaters, using battery-powered laptops and unplugging electric vehicles.

Albertans pulled through, reportedly reducing the load by around 200 megawatts within minutes. But in an era in which everything from cars to stoves to furnaces run on electricity, asking an entire province to turn out the lights and stop charging devices is not a great solution.

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