Alberta Power News Round Up - July 25th, 2017
- Samantha Hoffman, P.Eng.
- Sep 20, 2017
- 2 min read
Alberta News
United Conservative Party
The two major right wing parties in Alberta have merged.
What could this mean for the future of the electricity industry in Alberta?
The New Democrats have brought a number of changes to the market including a shift to a capacity market, introducing incentives for increased renewable energy and the introduction of a carbon levy which has discouraged coal fired generation.
Historically, the Conservation Party was more accepting of coal generation, granting permission for the construction of Keephills 3, a 450MW facility, in Wabamun in 2011.
This article asserts that the merger supporters are against the phasing out of coal generating facilities and the carbon levy.
Alberta Storms and Power Outages
Violent storms across the provinces have caused several power outages in Alberta.
At one point more than 2,000 people in Calgary were without power.
The local transmission and distribution companies have been posting photos of some of the damage.
Check out Altalink, Atco, ENMAX and Fortis's twitter feeds for more information and photos.
The AESO's Long Term Outlook
The Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) has released their Long Term Outlook (LTO).
This is the load and generation forecast that will be used to plan new transmission development (high voltage power delivery) and analyze the impacts of new grid connections (new generators and new loads).
An accurate load forecast is essential to planning for new development required to operate the Alberta transmission system safely and reliably.
Alberta Electricity Industry Labour Market
The Alberta Government is performing a workforce study on the Alberta electricity market.
Due to the "the accelerated pace of change – including technology advancements and the integration of renewables in the grid – will have a huge impact on both current and future workforce requirements"
Alberta Load Distribution
Black Shaffer created a cute little graphic showing hourly load distribution over fifteen years.
Canadian and World News
Fortis has shown interest in building a solar installation in British Columbia. It will be interesting to see if they try to enter the market in Alberta as well.
The Federal Government is planning to build electric vehicle charging stations over 3,000km on the Trans-Canada highway from Ontario and Manitoba.
Scotland has quadrupled their renewable energy capacity.
China has built the world's largest floating solar installation on the site of a flooded coal powered plant.
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