It's getting a tad nasty in Tory ville. Calgary's power brokers are fired up on power. It started with Calgary Herald calling out Tory leadership candidate, Ted Morton, on transmission lines.
Tory Leadership game on!
All prompted by Wikileaks suggesting exporting power is the rationale for the new transmission lines.
The government says power export is not the reason for the upgrade.
Follow the link. You decide.
Nothing overly sinister about exporting power. It's imported and exported all the time. That's the essence of a grid system. Power is consumed on demand. Moves to where it's needed.
It's good there's a modicum of discussion, now. Not so good there wasn't much, over the last two years.The issue is complex. Curious to me how myopic the focus is. Disclosure, I worked as consultant for the Heartland Transmission Project, the capital region sector of the proposed transmission line up grade.
How did transmission capacity become the key solution to our power needs. Why limited discussion on intrinsically related issues? Our power comes from coal. How does generation impact our GHG emissions? How does our 'dirty' power system impact our reputation?
Dirty oil, dirty power, dirty Alberta, I'm tired of being called dirty, you? What's the value of our reputation? How does that translate into the cost of our power? Should it?
With a singular focus on transmission, we missed an opportunity to consider an array of options. Conservation and managing demand. Making the grid smarter. Decentralizing distribution. Integrating alternative sources, wind, geothermal, solar, and natural gas. Crucial elements to creating a thorough solution to our power needs.
We squandered an opportunity to derive value from our grid. Manage our reputation. There's lots of value for wire line companies, AtlaLink, Epcor, and Atco. We pay for the up grade, they own the lines. Reap the value from export sales. Does that work for you?
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