Amount generated from electricity sources varies

Editor:

The letter from Mr. Barrie Orich of February 1 makes some interesting points but also consists of inaccuracies. Just because wind and solar resources are variable doesn’t make them ineffective or valueless.

As for electricity storage there are 190 megawatts (MW) of battery storage and, this winter there has been roughly 300MW’s of hydro generation being held back and used as storage.

These resources and their respective capacities are planned and used by the AESO (Alberta Electric System Operator) as Dispatched Contingency Reserve (DCR) which are paid for but not used unless needed.

These reserves vary in capacity based on the time of year, where the generation may be required if there is a problem on the grid and the amount of water stored behind a dam. Hydro is dependent on snowpack and rain each year and mandated stream flows necessary to support downstream aquatic life.

The potential does exist to have little or no wind generation when it’s very cold or very hot. However, to say that there is no solar available on our coldest or hottest days is false. While these resources are variable, they are also predictable, but the AESO does not factor them in daily generation forecasts. If there is generation from wind/solar the AESO removes or reduces generation from polluting fossil fuel or hydro resources. Many generating resources provide a reliable and dependable grid. One that relies on a few resources only is in for a calamity eventually.

Mr. Orich’s statement that coal (and/or gas) plants operate 24/7, 365 days a year is just not true! Generating records of these plants, show they are offline many times for scheduled maintenance, forced outages, cold/hot weather conditions or other environmental conditions such as injecting too much hot water into river systems.

Unlike oil/gas, landowners have a choice of having renewable energy facilities on their land. I wrote many wind energy contracts and they all had reclamation clauses even back in the 1990’s. The Premier uses this to delay any progress of the renewables industry.

The fact is that when 5,000 MWs of wind and solar are operating these clean resources are preventing the pollution from between 12 – 20 coal or gas plants!

Dale Johnson

Lethbridge