2003-08-23

Blackout Myths

I'm getting a little tired of reading that you can't store electrical power, and its corollary that power generation must exactly match demand at any given moment. In fact, you can store power in a number of forms. You can store it directly in capacitors, mechanically in flywheels, or chemically in rechargeable batteries and fuel cells. Because power can be stored, short term excess generation can be saved and returned to the grid later when demand increases.

There are some losses in conversion and storage and long term storage is problematic but the system is hardly teetering on the edge of collapse moment to moment. Storing excess power by breaking water into hydrogen and oxygen is often touted as the method of choice for creating a hydrogen infrastructure. All we need to do is keep the turbines running overnight rather than shutting them down. Imagine driving a car that emits pure water as exhaust!

Ontario's power is intimately tied to the American grid. That didn't cause the blackout. The blackout came because individual sections of the grid couldn't meet the immediate demand. The cascade of failures dramatically highlights where local demand outstripped local supply.

It was our dependency on imported power that ultimately caused our lights to go out.

We don't need to build massive new generators to meet demand. It is easier and cheaper to conserve electricity than it is to create it. The billions Eves is spending to restart ageing nuclear plants would be better invested in conservation. We can easily cut our usage by 20% and even a 40% reduction is within reach. Nuclear power must be phased out and replaced with windmills and small scale hydroelectric. It's an important matter of public health that we shutdown or convert coal fired plants. Eves' "commitment" to do so by 2015 means he'll be long gone. He won't ever be called on to do anything.

The NDP's pledge is that coal usage will stop within our term of office. It all comes down to leadership. Do we want four more years of crisis, where leadership means appearing calm at press conferences while you explain that it wasn't your fault? Or do we want the type of leadership that plans ahead? Do we want more of the disasters that have plagued Ontario since Eves took over or do we expect our leaders to present practical solutions?

Gary Dale, Provincial NDP Candidate
Scarborough East