Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Blackouts as four power plants shut down

EDMONTON - Monday’s rolling power blackouts were caused by a combination of high demand for power and the unexpected outage of several coal power plants in Alberta, made worse by exceptionally poor output from becalmed wind generators.

A total of four power generators were down at once on Monday, said Cathy O’Connell, a spokesman for the Alberta Electric System Operator.

TransAlta Utilities’ 362-megawatt Sundance 3 has been out of commission since Friday, but was joined early Monday morning by Atco Power’s Battle River No. 5 and then, in quick succession in the early afternoon by TransAlta’s 406-MW Keephills 1, Capital Power’s 400-MW Genesee 2 and Atco Power’s 385-MW Joffre CT201.

Capital Power said its plant had an instrument malfunction and automatically shut down, but was restarted quickly and back fully on line by 5:15 p.m.

Capital’s three natural gas-fired “peaking” turbine units at Cloverbar were switched on immediately, and were ramping toward their 250-MW capacity within minutes.

“When Genesee went down, and with the other plants off, the province was short 1,200-MW of power,” said Capital spokesman Michael Sheehan.

Atco spokesman Paul Wright said the company isn’t sure what went wrong at Battle River.

“We are still assessing the situation there, but this unit is the newest and largest at Battle River,” he said.

All are coal-fired electricity plants except Joffre, which uses natural gas.

Higher electricity consumption was boosted by consumer demand for air conditioning and refrigeration, leading to a supply-demand imbalance that prompted the AESO to insist that suppliers cut their usage.

Higher temperatures also cause stress on the supply side of the electricity equation, said Evan Bahry, executive director of the Independent Power Producers Society of Alberta.

“These are pieces of equipment in these power plants and they are subject to all sorts mechanical breakdowns and, especially when they are under the stress of the province’s demand growth, each unit then becomes that much more important to the system,” Bahry said.

A chart on the AESO website shows that electricity prices hit their maximum level of $1,000 per megawatt-hour Monday afternoon.

Original Article
Source: edmonton journal
Author: Dave Cooper and DAN HEALING

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