Weekly Energy Charts
September 15, 2022
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Featured Stories
Expensive AESO Power
Andrew Leach
It was a high-priced week for Alberta electricity and, on Wednesday, the average price for the 24 hour day topped $760/MWh.
And, while much of
this Summer and Fall has seen higher prices than we’ve seen in a long
while, this week as a whole is looking to be exceptional.
And, there’s more bad news to come for power
consumers. As of this writing, Alberta’s regulated rate option for
October, the default power price for those not on a contract, looks set
to clock in at close to $200/MWh (20 cents per kWh), the highest prices
so far this year.
The True Cost of Clean Energy?
Marc Vermette
As we transition to cleaner energy sources, a common perspective is that environmental progress is expensive. A new report claims that these views are pessimistic and wrong.
The report looks at historic prices for renewables and fossil fuels and then bases its findings on models of how they are likely to change in the future.
The data used for fossil fuels goes back 100 years and shows that, after accounting for inflation and market volatility, the price hasn’t decreased as many may believe.
The costs of solar and wind power, on the other hand, have fallen dramatically, at a rate of nearly 10% a year.
The lead author of the report, Dr Rupert Way, says, “our latest research shows scaling-up key green technologies will continue to drive their costs down, and the faster we go, the more we will save.”
In terms of new energy projects, wind and solar are already the least expensive options available, but the question remains, how can we store power and balance the grid when changes in the weather, the time of day, or seasonal changes lead to decreases in renewable output?
Who is importing Saudi crude?
Andrew Leach
I poked my head back into the Twitter machine today to see that political figures in Canada were once again talking about crude oil imports, and raising the possibility of a crude oil import ban on certain, overseas countries with lamentable human rights records. So, I thought it was worth revisiting, courtesy of the Canadian Energy Regulator, the supply and disposition of Canadian crude oil imports.
Source: CER
Canadian crude oil imports have been on a downward trend, thanks mostly to more capacity on the Enbridge mainline into Sarnia and through to Montreal. But, the sources of the crude we import have changed dramatically too. Since the US lifted its crude oil export ban, and coincident with their rapid increase in domestic production, the US has taken over about 2/3 of our import market share.
Source: CER
And, if you’re interested in Saudi Arabian crude oil specifically (I’m looking at you, Pierre Poilievre), there’s only one refinery that’s been running Saudi crude at all in the last few years, and that the Irving Refinery in Saint John. And, even their slate has changed, to include less Saudi crude than used to be the case.
But, I guess someone has to keep watch on what goes through the refinery gate.
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