Extreme weather and Alberta’s AWOL energy

Alberta, sitting on massive reserves of oil and gas, found itself teetering on the edge of blackouts this week as temperatures in the -40 degree ranges led to multiple grid alerts. As a new record for peak demand was set at 12,384MW, Alberta’s 4481MW wind fleet went AWOL. This raises major concerns regarding electricity planning with a country wide federal mandate for Net Zero electricity by 2035 having already generated significant political controversy in Alberta which has imposed a moratorium on new wind and solar over affordability and reliability concerns. It is therefore a timely occurrence that this same week Alberta’s Capital Power and Ontario Power Generation announced a feasibility study looking at near term deployment of a fleet of nuclear reactors in the province. Chris Popoff joins me to explain.