City Notebook: Power talk predictable, but didn’t see this one coming

By COLLIN GALLANT on January 20, 2024.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Last Saturday morning this column mentioned that power might be a continuing conversation in 2024.

By that night, it was all anyone was talking about.

Alberta’s stressed power grid issued an alert calling for Albertans to conserve power – turn off Christmas lights and block heaters, that sort of thing – during Hockey Night in Canada as temperatures dropped to -40C and furnaces ran nearly non stop.

In Medicine Hat, where we’re reacquainting ourselves with how electricity, or at least electricity pricing, works, the issue wasn’t quite so acute.

The Hat’s city-owned (publicly owned?) power plant set a production record to export power while local supply was never in doubt.

Similarly, SaskPower, a Crown power company, as well as B.C. Hydro (ditto) spared power in Alberta’s time of need.

The reason, screamed the people in charge of Alberta’s system, was cold weather and a lack of firm generation capacity, which you’d like to think would be a top priority in the whole running-a-power-system discussion.

But, it’s the Alberta way to let the market sort itself out, or more accurately, let the companies that supply the market work it out.

Yet, there are calls from increasingly vocal conservative actors to A) more actively punish renewable companies for, in their opinion, causing the mess, or B) stand up its own gas generation.

That’s on point.

The UCP already ordered a figure-it-out-as-we-go review of wind and solar permitting that may or may not result in major changes next month.

And Premier Danielle Smith has opened the door to operating gas power plants as a last resort, mainly to poke Ottawa in the eye over clean-air regulations.

She’s dropped enough hints over 18 months as UCP leader that there may be a need for some sort of capacity power market (paying generators to hold backup supply, as suggested by the New Democrats, but nixed by the Kenney-led UCP in 2019).

More recently, Smith seems fully committed to the energy-only market, but there’s a question of how to convince private corporations to build more on-demand plants.

One “reform” proposal would be to raise, perhaps double, the 20-year-old ceiling on the power market from $999 per megawatt. Those short price spikes provide a payday to producers and incentive to get new plants built.

It’s $5,000 in Texas, which is the only other “energy only market,” which translates to $5 per kilowatt.

For comparison, the new no-fuss city power price is about 10 cents for local customers.

Scuttlebutt

Officials with the Medicine Hat Stampede board say they are still evaluating it all, but are “confident” about holding July 1 events at the grounds. This comes after some confusion about who is doing what resulted from a council decision to award funding for Canada Day fireworks to the Medicine Hat Skateboard Association. Other groups are invited to also make up proposals, including the Stampede, which has done its own event fireworks and the Canada Day variety for several years.

Norm Gerestein was re-elected as the head of the United Conservative Brooks-Medicine Hat riding association last week. Local NDPers are set to hold an AGM this weekend.

A look ahead

The annual State of the City address and luncheon will take place Tuesday with Mayor Linnsie Clark providing her third overview of city hall accomplishments and priorities.

On Monday, more will be outlined about the system of grants provided to the community groups by the city when council’s public services committee takes up the issue.

100 years ago

Likely the first ever hockey “road trip” to Medicine Hat happened on Jan. 19, 1924, the News reported at the time.

“Twill be a snorting battle,” promoted the News as the Monarchs hosted the Lethbridge Vets in the first half finals game of the recently formed Prairie Hockey League.

Notable however, was the fact the Vets arrived in a Ford Sedan, not by train, following a 3 hour and 55 minute auto trip. The game ended 6-0 in favour of the Hat, which earned a bye to the eventual final series versus the second half champion.

Hat MP Robert Gardiner was elected chairman of the provincial United Farmers of Alberta while annual conference delegates voting against support for the creation of a Alberta government bank. Buoyed by the creation of the wheat pool, the party would support co-op marketing of cattle as well as eggs.

In New York, medical researchers posited that an end to scarlet fever and leprosy could be at hand due to newly developed serums.

Premier Lenin of Soviet Russia died of a stroke on Jan. 21.

Collin Gallant covers city politics and a variety of topics for the News. Reach him at 403-528-5664 or via email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com.