Cold Snap in the West...

[Rylant]

I live in Edmonton and apparently we got down below -40 C without the wind chill in the wee hours, which apparently is the coldest it has been in Edmonton since 1966. I have never seen it that cold before. There was also an Emergency Management Alert yesterday asking everyone to conserve power due to the cold which had the possibility of leading to rolling blackouts. I heard that Alberta was drawing emergency power from BC, Saskatchewan and Montana, but I am not sure if that is true. Low wind apparently contributed to not being able to generate enough power due to Wind Generation. Apparently Albertans heeded the warning and reacted quickly to the warning; I know that I did. The alert ended a couple hours later, but apparently is still a concern. Crazy, I have never seen this kind of thing before. My watch says it's a balmy -31 C now.

Everyone stay safe out there!

Rylant

[Axeman33]

I've got a few friends out west sharing this stuff on their socials. Brrr! Stay warm.

[finnys_fanatsy]

yup, she cold on the Prairies in CAN...SK is also in that same boat. somehow we had enough power to send to AB to our buddies there..only imagine what happens when more and more lectric vehicles are on teh roads and our grid is completely overwhelmed more often.

[Canucks_fan18]

yup, she cold on the Prairies in CAN...SK is also in that same boat. somehow we had enough power to send to AB to our buddies there..only imagine what happens when more and more lectric vehicles are on teh roads and our grid is completely overwhelmed more often.

They said in the emergency announcement not to charge your electric vehicles, among other things. I have nothing against electric vehicles, I even rented a Tesla once on a trip with my daughter and loved it. However, making a full on conversion from gas to electric without a proper infrastructure is p!ss poor planning. It's just pandering from politicians, except some people actually buy the crap there selling.

[PenguinHunter]

Thank goodness for underground heated parking for the Jets Flyers game. Walking outside to that game would have been miserable.

[finnys_fanatsy]

Thank goodness for underground heated parking for the Jets Flyers game. Walking outside to that game would have been miserable.

which city? i am headed to WPG for a game in a few weeks..looking for options on Hotel/Parking. i have stayed in the (i think) Radisson directly attached to the arena, but looking for other options this time..

[PenguinHunter]

which city? i am headed to WPG for a game in a few weeks..looking for options on Hotel/Parking. i have stayed in the (i think) Radisson directly attached to the arena, but looking for other options this time..

Yes Winnipeg.

Do you have kids that you are taking?
If so you should check out Holiday Inn Winnipeg Airport West.

They have an indoor ball pit, playground structure by the pool.
The only catch with it is that it is not walking distance to the Canada Life Centre.
I always seem to find that the amoount you save on the hotel further away is worth it.

If it is cold, the best parking spot is under the Millennium Library.
It is underground parking.
You take a elevator up to the 2nd floor and there is indoor walk way right to the arena.
Leave the jacket in the car and stay warm the whole way.

Parking for the game was $21 for the vehicle.
There are always a few trucks down there so it does fit trucks.
But I wouldn't risk it if you have a truck. I didn't take note of the exact clearance as we always take the Edge to games.

Keep in mind that the 21 dollars is worth more than 21$ in savings at a hotel - because the Winnipeg hotel taxes that are added onto hotel list prices are extreme.

And this doesn't calculate the opportunity cost given up if you value being able to drink and then walk back to your hotel and not having to worry about driving.

[butch]

I've experienced enough -35 / -40 in my life , no fun .

people find out quickly how bad of shape their car battery is

[lobo1969]

yup, she cold on the Prairies in CAN...SK is also in that same boat. somehow we had enough power to send to AB to our buddies there..only imagine what happens when more and more lectric vehicles are on teh roads and our grid is completely overwhelmed more often.

Blaming EVs for every power emergency (winter or summer) going forward is based on complete and utter ignorance and that is the narrative pushed these days.
There are about 5 million registered vehicles in Alberta, both private and business. Of that huge number is about 15000 EVs. If even 10% of those 5 million gas/diesel vehicles plug in their block heaters the power draw will outstrip what all the EVs will draw. I'd bet the number of homes still lighting up their X-mas lights draws more power than all the EVs charging at once. Most EV owners charge at home and they do their charging over night, off peak hours anyways.

Privatization of the Alberta grid is forcing us to live on the electrical capacity generation limit ALL THE TIME because there is little profit in building a buffer of added capacity to accommodate extreme cold/heat weather events. If the simple act of adjusting power rates to premium rates at peak times and minimal rates to off peak hours than would do way more to combat peak time shortages as people in general would be more careful with their general power consumption. But the current AB government continues to shirks their responsibility to increase capacity, modernize the grid, update energy policies and prefer to continue to point fingers at some boogie man in Ottawa.

[lobo1969]

I live in Edmonton and apparently we got down below -40 C without the wind chill in the wee hours, which apparently is the coldest it has been in Edmonton since 1966. I have never seen it that cold before. There was also an Emergency Management Alert yesterday asking everyone to conserve power due to the cold which had the possibility of leading to rolling blackouts. I heard that Alberta was drawing emergency power from BC, Saskatchewan and Montana, but I am not sure if that is true. Low wind apparently contributed to not being able to generate enough power due to Wind Generation. Apparently Albertans heeded the warning and reacted quickly to the warning; I know that I did. The alert ended a couple hours later, but apparently is still a concern. Crazy, I have never seen this kind of thing before. My watch says it's a balmy -31 C now.

Everyone stay safe out there!

Rylant

-16 today, absolute shorts weather now!

[LawMan]

-16 today, absolute shorts weather now!

WE SURVIVED!
That stretch was no joke. Hope everyone made it out OK.

[finnys_fanatsy]

Blaming EVs for every power emergency (winter or summer) going forward is based on complete and utter ignorance and that is the narrative pushed these days.
There are about 5 million registered vehicles in Alberta, both private and business. Of that huge number is about 15000 EVs. If even 10% of those 5 million gas/diesel vehicles plug in their block heaters the power draw will outstrip what all the EVs will draw. I'd bet the number of homes still lighting up their X-mas lights draws more power than all the EVs charging at once. Most EV owners charge at home and they do their charging over night, off peak hours anyways.

Privatization of the Alberta grid is forcing us to live on the electrical capacity generation limit ALL THE TIME because there is little profit in building a buffer of added capacity to accommodate extreme cold/heat weather events. If the simple act of adjusting power rates to premium rates at peak times and minimal rates to off peak hours than would do way more to combat peak time shortages as people in general would be more careful with their general power consumption. But the current AB government continues to shirks their responsibility to increase capacity, modernize the grid, update energy policies and prefer to continue to point fingers at some boogie man in Ottawa.

not once did i blame the EVs for the shortage in power..all i said was imagine what it will be like when...

anyway, the snap coming to a close in the next day or two for us here.

[lobo1969]

not once did i blame the EVs for the shortage in power..all i said was imagine what it will be like when...

anyway, the snap coming to a close in the next day or two for us here.

If you aren't blaming EVs than why did you bother to point it out, hmmmm?

[PenguinHunter]

If you aren't blaming EVs than why did you bother to point it out, hmmmm?

Are you suggesting that more electric vehicles will not result in more electricity consumption?

Finny simply stating that if there are more vehicles that require electricity, then the electricity consumption will increase.

Very simple and straight forward correlation in my opinion.

[2014olympicgold]

It started off by saying "I can't imagine what happens when there are more EVs on the road with the same infrastructure" . Then it was pointed out that EVs currently don't drain the system to the level people are being told.

That's it. Stop arguing about nothing. shush now.