City Notebook: Power profits soar when temperatures go crazy

By COLLIN GALLANT on July 3, 2021.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Ching, ching, cha-ching – that sound might be thermometers popping, but it’s also the cash register rollicking at the city’s power plant.

A first blush of weekly power figures across the province had analysts looking as far back as the Enron disaster to find similar prices.

Do I have to mention that it was hot? Maybe you also heard the omnipresent hum of air conditioning units?

Spikes from a week-long polar vortex put Medicine Hat’s power plant on its way to $28 million in unexpected profit.

Let’s see what a heat dome across Alberta – where Medicine Hat makes most of its unusual income from exports – can do.

Perhaps less obvious during the heat emergency in this quadrant of North America is yet more utility companies announcing net zero plans.

Amidst the gusher of cash was the announcement this week by Enmax that it intends to meet 2050 targets set by the federal government, and considering words and actions of other major providers in the province – not to mention every company in the oilsands – Medicine Hat appears to be the only holdout at this point.

It’s becoming less common, but there’s still a good number of people who think it’s all crazy talk.

Increasingly common are those who view renewable energy as a very viable threat to the traditional energy sector and city power profits, which are now essentially the only business unit profits the city has anymore. (Gas wells are being shut in, and land sales are now essentially paid back to private land developers).

They are likely matched in number by those who look at today’s power prices and ask “it ain’t broke, so why fix it?”

But, what’s the city to do in the face of monumental change?

If any of the candidates in the upcoming city election have such a plan, we certainly haven’t heard about it, or barely a position on public ownership of the utility.

Energy committee head Coun. Phil Turnbull tried it to bring up the future landscape in the utility sector and got walloped.

Recall that six months ago city officials launched a process to valuate the city’s power interests, potentially for a sale, described as a forward looking exercise.

Mind you, it’s hard to get elected taking strong positions, and economics today seems to be more about holding on to what you’ve got, rather than doing anything new.

But where some see crisis, others see opportunity.

As well this week, the City of St. Albert OK’d a 15-megawatt solar facility in conjunction with Atco. Oyen has its own facility in the works. The Town of Stirling created its own power retailer. Several counties and irrigation districts are coupling on power projects at abandoned well-sites.

Fun with math

The vaccination drive is flagging in Montana, which the News has dutifully watched, and where Albertans sick of COVID pointed as some sort of model for how to do it right.

The number of first shots administered in Hill County rose by only 50 over the past seven days, leaving about 6,500 people willing to be vaccinated over the last seven months, and about 6,500 who haven’t been swayed to roll up a sleeve whatsoever.

One can only wonder if it’ll happen in Alberta, too.

Here, all second dose phases have been moved up and opened wide, which could be partly do to vaccine availability, but also a response to fewer new first-shot appointments.

A look ahead

A light council agenda on Monday features an outline of public consultations on the current review of parks and creation masterplan and a final COVID-19 update from city head of emergency response Merrick Brown.

100 years ago

With a federal byelection – and striking win by farm-labour candidate Robt. Gardiner – in the books in Medicine Hat, focus quickly turned to the coming provincial election, the News reported in early July 1921.

Buoyed by the win, the local chapter of the Dominion Labour Party vowed to enter the provincial election landscape and brought in Bill Ivens, a Winnipeg general strike leader who was subsequently elected MLA in Manitoba while in prison.

Their local candidate would be W.G. Johnston, a train engineer, while the News wondered in an editorial why working men wouldn’t stick with the Stewart-led Liberal government.

The News mused in an editorial that MLA C.S. Pingle (Redcliff), the speaker of the legislature, should be worthy to retain his seat by acclamation.

Local Liberals began a process to select one of two candidates for the riding, including Hector Lang.

Former Medicine Hat MLA Charles Mitchell, the provincial treasurer, held his nomination to run for the Liberals in the Bow Valley riding.

Medicine Hat citizens were rife with worry about the implications of the Calgary Gas Company seeking access to the Redcliff fields.

Crop conditions were considered exemplary and rainmaker Chas. Hatfield, currently stationed in Bowmanton, proposed two towers for the 1922 growing season, to be located at Strathmore and Tide Lake.

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