Coal power disappearing from Alberta’s grid for first time in decades

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Alberta’s electrical energy grid is predicted to completely wean off coal this summer season, six years forward of schedule — a exceptional climbdown from the vitality supply that 10 years in the past supplied Albertans with greater than half their electrical energy.

The milestone has even shocked one of many economists who designed Alberta’s coal phaseout plan lower than a decade in the past.

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In current months, the province has skilled a number of hours by which coal has been fully absent from its electrical energy combine.

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Alberta’s first coal-free hour got here on Feb. 2 and lasted 11 hours.

It occurred once more in early March, with the province’s closing two coal crops producing zero vitality for almost 48 hours between March 4 and 6, in response to the Alberta Electrical energy System Operator’s (AESO) metered quantity information.

The ultimate step will come this summer season when Capital Energy’s Genesee 1 and a couple of crops end transitioning two coal-fired crops to pure gasoline. (The ultimate plant, Genesee 2, is scheduled to close down initially of June.) Because it stands, coal supplies a most capability of simply 820 megawatts (MW) — lower than 4 per cent of all obtainable era in Alberta, a steep decline from a decade in the past, when coal supplied 5,509 MW and 54 per cent of Albertans’ electrical energy wants.

“It wasn’t way back that 80 per cent of electrical energy provide in Alberta got here from coal; now we’re beginning to see hours the place there may be zero coal-fired era within the province,” Blake Shaffer, electrical energy knowledgeable and economist on the College of Calgary, stated in an electronic mail to Postmedia.

Alberta had 18 coal-fired crops in 2016. On the time, Alberta produced extra coal air pollution than all different Canadian provinces mixed.

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‘Arguably the most important emissions-reduction coverage in Canadian historical past’

This 12 months’s phaseout is being celebrated as the results of coverage launched beneath Rachel Notley’s NDP authorities, and continued by successive UCP governments.

“I believe it’s arguably the most important emissions-reduction coverage in Canadian historical past,” stated Andrew Leach, economist on the College of Alberta. Leach chaired Notley’s local weather management panel when the NDP was in authorities from 2015 to 2019, and led the design of Alberta’s coal phaseout plan.

A part of that was resulting from Alberta’s industrial carbon pricing framework, presently often known as its Expertise Innovation and Emissions Discount Regulation (TIER). The coverage resulted in heavy emitters similar to coal crops paying considerably extra for his or her air pollution than lower-emitting vitality producers, with prices growing every year.

Adam Gaffney, supervisor of era forecasting and sources adequacy at AESO, stated the carbon pricing system was the “massive driver” that obtained Alberta off coal.

Regardless of setting a 2030 full phaseout goal, Leach stated he was struck by how shortly corporations similar to ATCO, Capital Energy and TransAlta introduced the pricey endeavour of transitioning operations to pure gasoline. (The Genesee repowering undertaking, for context, was final projected to value $1.35 billion.)

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“This was in no way a conservative goal on the time. I assumed it was a really aggressive goal,” Leach stated. “The true shock for me in all probability got here 5 years in the past, when it turned fairly clear that we had been going to be off coal . . . rather more quickly than anybody thought.”

Coal phaseout ‘a incredible case research of actually good coverage design’

Jason Kenney’s UCP authorities solidified the NDP’s industrial carbon pricing regime with its TIER system, Leach stated.

The hassle rivalled Ontario’s 11-year coal phaseout, accomplished in 2014. In 2003, coal supplied 1 / 4 of Ontario’s electrical energy provide.

“It’s a incredible case research of actually good coverage design in that we set a goal requiring all of the coal crops to go away, however then we arrange this financial backing, setting a value sign to permit corporations to do it in their very own approach,” stated Will Noel, electrical energy analyst on the Pembina Institute, a clean-energy think-tank.

The transition comes with main emissions-reduction good points: Getting off coal will scale back Alberta’s electrical energy emissions from about 50 megatonnes (MT) in 2005 to 16.5 MT projected for this 12 months, in response to AESO.

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For context, Canada’s total electrical energy grid produced 52 MT of emissions in 2021, in response to the federal Ministry of Surroundings and Local weather Change.

It additionally comes amid a surge in renewable energy in Alberta.

“We thought it was fairly cool how . . . (final 12 months) we had been having hours the place photo voltaic was producing greater than coal for a pair hours at a time,” Noel stated. “Solely a 12 months later, we’re having zero coal.”

— With information from Postmedia

mscace@postmedia.com
X: @mattscace67

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