Business as usual at the city’s power facilities
By COLLIN GALLANT on March 21, 2020.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant Managers at the city’s power plant report that in terms of the Alberta power supply system, the response to the coronavirus pandemic has been “pretty uneventful, really.” General manager Brian Strandlund said that in terms of power production the city’s facilities are all functioning, the utility is providing power to the provincial grid when needed, and the staff is at a full compliment. “Generally the provincial grid seems very stable at this time with only a few hours yesterday whereby prices spiked up because a large coal unit went off line,” he said, referring to Thursday. “Pretty uneventful really – it is business as usual.” City emergency planners have said that measures regarding cleanliness and staff rotation were put in place to help avoid the spread of COVID-19. Several key facilities have seen heightened restricted access procedures since earlier this month. Crypto-miner lowers power draw Hut 8 Cryptocurrency announced this week that it is cutting its operating rate by half – thereby cutting power consumption by the same percentage – in order to “optimize” its operations and margins as the price of Bitcoin drops. The data-processing company earns Bitcoin for handling transactions of the most-popular cryptocurrency, but the market price has fallen steeply along with other financial instruments this week in turbulent markets. Traders were paying about US$8,000 for a bitcoin on March 11, before falling by 50 per cent by early this week. It had rebounded to sit at about $6,600 in early trading on Friday. The Company has a contract with the City of Medicine Hat’s power utility to use up to 67 megawatts of power at its north-end facility. That figure could comprise up to one-quarter the city’s total power production capacity of 255 megawatts. Power production at the city’s facilities on Friday morning was steady at 155 megawatts, according to the Alberta Electric System Operator. Methanex idles overseas plants Local methanol producer Methanex will idle plants in Trinidad this week and recently restarted plants in Chile next week as it expects demand for the industrial chemical to be hampered this spring. “There has been a substantial reduction in manufacturing activity in countries that have had significant outbreaks of COVID-19,” said CEO John Floren in a statement this week. “As a result we are reducing production at our facilities where we have flexibility in our gas agreements.” Methanex has struggled with contracting gas in both countries over the last several years. There was no statement about production in Medicine Hat, though Floren has in the past pointed to high efficiency and low-cost, well-supplied gas in southeastern Alberta as an advantage here. 17-16
