Photo by Whitehorse Star
Yukoners’ power usage was sizzling
Yukon Energy hit a record this week for power generation as the territory remained in the grips of frigid temperatures.
Yukon Energy hit a record this week for power generation as the territory remained in the grips of frigid temperatures.
President Andrew Hall said this morning generation peaked at 111 megawatts, smashing the previous record of 104 MW.
Hydro generation contributed between 65 and 67 MW of generation with the remaining 50-plus MW generated by LNG and diesel.
The previous record was set Dec. 16, and in January 2020 before that.
“It is not always a given when it’s this cold that we are going to hit a peak because it depends on what the mines are doing,” Hall said.
“But definitely, earlier this week, we did hit a couple of records.”
While the operating mines do contribute to the load, Hall said, demand by the residential and commercial sectors are driving factors behind the record.
Population growth over the long term is a factor, and so too is the preference for electric heat in new construction, he explained.
Hall said whether it’s a multi-family housing development downtown or new single-family housing in the Whistle Bend subdivision, the new buildings are all heated with electricity.
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Comments (37)
Up 2 Down 2
Communists - Everywhere you look, Extinction Rebellion Communists on a free society - Nice! on Jan 12, 2022 at 4:16 pm
Dear Sheepchaser - A very well thought out and considerate approach. I applaud your efforts - Welldone!
Up 3 Down 3
Yukoner92 on Jan 12, 2022 at 3:17 pm
@Groucho Sure thing. I'll admit there is always the possibility with any scientific theory of there being a Galileo moment. The odds are just very much stacked against this at any given time. The reason people have cited the Galileo moment throughout history and still do today, is precisely because of how rare it was.
In the past when I have had debates on this subject, people would then say 'it's not that rare that science gets it wrong' so let me jump to that because it is likely where you will go.
It's important to remember that a general societal belief is not a scientific one. The media will often push things without much scientific backing. For example, climate deniers love to say "they predicted an Ice Age in the 70's" which is false. "They" being scientists who study climate, did no such thing. It was a small group of scientists who were pondering the question. The only reason it got any attention was because of a Time Magazine article (and not the one you constantly see posted on social media - that one with the penguins was doctored and never a real thing). The prevailing thinking on global warming has been largely the same for over a 100 years now - it keeps getting refined as we get more accurate measurements and add in more variables, but the greenhouse effect remains largely the same.
Another example is vitamin C. Despite everyone thinking it is great for sickness and colds etc. The reality is that no doctor will recommend this as a treatment..... because it doesn't work. The whole myth came from a single chemist back in the 60s. We need vitamin C in our diets of course, but it does not have any effect on our immune system. You will just get scurvy and die if you don't have it. haha.
So something pushed as scientific by a corporation or political party etc. does not make it so. Media often just reports on whatever will get the biggest splash instead of what the boring scientific consensus is on an issue.
Up 11 Down 3
Sheepchaser on Jan 12, 2022 at 11:48 am
@ Communists - Everywhere you look
We just approach life from completely different points of view. The world doesn’t owe me anything. I am entitled to nothing. Planned the life I wanted and worked hard to get there. I wanted freedom. Real freedom: ownership, and passive income generation before the age of 35 made possible by long term strategy and, yes, years of living within a tight budget. All to avoid debt. Debt is a shackle driven by the biggest deception machine in history. The modern media is the handmaiden to expectations of lifestyle that drive people insane with greed.
To be clear, I did not say that a ‘big’ life need be outlawed, just that given how things are you should expect to have to work for it most of your waking life. A statement based on an assessment of the reality we find ourselves in. I don’t think a ‘big’ life is wrong, but that it is dumb to complain about it when it’s your choice. In so far as you’re asking for a life of toil and diminishing returns no matter what the government policy of the day is. So again, just not a lot of sympathy there for folks that want it all without having first seriously considered the consequences.
It used to be dangerous to live high on the hog while borrowing money all over town. Now it’s just the norm. Make no mistake though, the banks will get their money out of you even from beyond the grave. Worse than a loan shark.
Up 5 Down 2
Groucho d'North on Jan 12, 2022 at 10:52 am
@Yukoner 92
Given your argument about representation ratios and the greater opinion volume is usually correct, I'd like to hear your views on Galileo. Large number probability theory has been proven to be wrong numerous times.
Up 4 Down 9
Yukoner 92 on Jan 11, 2022 at 8:40 pm
@Communists Of course I'm going to appeal to authority on a complex issue like climate change. You think average Joes like us can truly debate an issue like this? I think you are confusing scientific debates with political ones. Now I could be wrong, perhaps you or JohnW are climatologists. If that is the case then I apologize.
But assuming you are not, we can't have a truly informed debate on the topic since none of us are versed on it. If you want to debate this, than let's also debate whether or not Loop Quantum Gravity is correct. Then let's talk about how best to treat brain cancer. If you or John can seriously debate climate change, then there is no reason you can't debate these topics either.
Your comment is reflective of the idiocracy we are now living in. People think that they can understand a very complex issue by reading a few articles or studies or watching a few videos. This is ludicrous. What kind of geniuses people must think themselves to be, in order to digest a topic or issue that others have spent their entire careers on, in just a matter of hours or days.
So yes, if the ratio is 500 to 1 for climatologists saying that the earth is warming dangerously and that mankind is the cause, I'm going to believe them.
If the ratio is 500 to 1 for doctors saying that vaccines are safe and effective, yes I'm going to believe the majority and get my vaccine.
If 500 doctors tell me I have kidney cancer and one says I don't, I'm going to believe the 500 and start getting treatment.
Again, I implore you to consider the Dunning-Kruger effect which you seem to personify.
Up 8 Down 5
Communists - Everywhere you look, Extinction Rebellion Communists on a free society - Nice! on Jan 11, 2022 at 2:38 pm
FFS Yukoner 92 - Prison inmates were able to beat Harvard students in a debate. You are using an argument from authority which is proof of bias… It is the resort of intellectual dullards and cowards incapable of proving their claims so they resort to vague generalizations - Engage the argument and not the person through ad hominem absurdist, hokum.
It’s funny that you seem to not recognize the irony in your post. I am wondering at the possibility of hypocrisy too? I guess we will have to wait and see with further posts I guess?
Up 9 Down 8
Communists - Everywhere you look, Extinction Rebellion Communists on a free society - Nice! on Jan 11, 2022 at 1:40 pm
Sheepchaser - That is a dangerous statement! I have no sympathy for those that want it all!?!?
So you take it upon yourself as a matter of right to tell others how to live their lives - GTOH!
What do you define as a big house? What is having it all? Because the lifestyle you propose is a sedentary do nothing, own nothing and be happy one - Raising others up by dragging everyone else down!
Up 9 Down 1
beaker on Jan 10, 2022 at 7:12 pm
@come on...So the Yukon rates for over 1000 KWh are .1282. My old house in Copper Ridge with no electric heat in the winter was $240+ month. Add another 4000 + Kwh to keep house at 20C, hot water, plugged in autos (non EV) and viola 1043+ dollars per month on a "green" house that depends on diesel to power..so C'mon!
Up 4 Down 3
Come on. on Jan 10, 2022 at 3:38 pm
@ beaker
$1,200 a month, you’re doing something seriously wrong.
I’m in WB and my Super Green home with electric heat goes from $80 in the summer to $300 in a brutal cold snap. That’s heat, lights hot, water etc.
@mathew 15,000 watt base board heaters and 7 watt light bulbs? Have your house checked for a gas leak bud. Hahaha
Up 10 Down 16
Don’t Even Bother! on Jan 10, 2022 at 2:16 pm
@ Biom’asses on Jan 9, 2022 at 11:11 pm:
You might believe you are having an intelligent, balanced, and thoughtful discussion with these people but they are so far into their delusion they cannot see through the smoke to see the trees let alone the forest in the first place.
25-30% of all the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere each year are the result of deforestation due to biomass activities. The biomass industry is a leading killer of forests world wide resulting in a net loss of trees every year. Tree planting efforts are unable to keep pace. These people are just playing dumb.
Biomass industries disrupt local water sheds by consuming 20-50,000 gallons per mega-watt hour - Steam power is used to make electric energy. This water is returned to the source at much greater temperatures along with the residual nutrients which further pollute other water sources contributing to dead spots (anaerobic zones) in the oceans.
The Journal of Climate informs that the resulting particulates contribute to global cooling in the short-term by reflecting solar radiation back out of the atmosphere and in the long term (decades) it contributes to global warming.
Biomass is not a true renewable resource. It leads to deforestation in places around the world - This is a well known and observed fact. However, you will never convince the Biom’asses of their ignorance because they are deluded by the false sense of security afforded to them by the green-veils of misinformation on the subject.
Riverdale should be declared a state of emergency in the dead of winter as the thick, acrid, asthma inducing, heart attack provoking clouds of woodsmoke hang like a looming spectre of some dystopian nightmare… Wheeze, wheeze…
The Biom’ass cultists should be required pay monetary reparations for their injurious and life threatening pursuits…
It’s interesting to note that those early European settlers and their colonial tag-ons from the church thought they were doing good too… But look at the devastation and destruction they have wrought with good intentions.
Don’t even bother trying to educate them. Their minds will implode at the weight of the thought… Collapsing in on itself like a black hole… Sucking you into the abyss.
Up 38 Down 1
At least we had power on Jan 10, 2022 at 11:28 am
I’m just impressed (more so surprised) that we didn’t have a power failure.
Up 13 Down 24
Sheepchaser on Jan 10, 2022 at 9:25 am
On the subject of affordability:
Built a 600 sqft house for two plus dog. Costs no more than $50/month in electricity at any time of year. Wood heat primary in a gassifier stove that beats 2030 air quality standards and backup baseboards set no higher than 16C. Super insulated. $15 per year in chainsaw fuel to cut the two cords we go through each winter. Insurance at $340/year. Property tax at $600/year. No mortgage. No debt.
Put solar panels on last summer, but because we’re already so efficient we’ll be donating the majority of the power they produce to the grid as there’s a maximum percentage of your power bill that generation can offset. A maximum we’ll never hit. (You’re welcome.)
Also sold the pickup truck and bought a much smaller and cheaper to maintain car. Bought electric pedal assist mountain bikes instead of gas burners for recreation.
We offset costs by doing things like sprouting seeds and legumes instead of buying overpriced groceries, being vegetarian half of the time, hunting small game and purchasing locally farmed meat. When we travel, we bicycle tour and camp in tents most nights as we can’t afford hotels.
A bit tough to have sympathy for those that want it all… big house, big vehicles, big family, big vacations, big steaks… if that’s what you want then you should expect to spend your entire waking life working for it. If you have more humble tastes, you can retire in your thirties as I have done.
If the average person spent half as much time being strategic about their future as they do watching sports on TV or on ‘Wastebook’, we’d actually have a much more functional society.
All in, our household bills amount to less than $1000/month and I’ll never have a boss again. Took a decade of dedication to make it happen, but getting out of the rat race was worth all the sacrifices. Then and now.
If you believed our elders when they said you should go into debt for school, I’m sorry. If you believe them now about the price of their second-hand homes and infrastructure, I’m sorry, but you should know better already. If you plan to continue to believe them about the future viability of things like pension plans and the trajectory of inflation, by now you’re probably so deep in it there’s no hope of digging yourself out and should ignore anything I have to say on the subject.
Up 12 Down 3
iBrian on Jan 10, 2022 at 7:00 am
What would be good is if we could get the same level financial assistance to put Thermal Electric Generators on our woodstove chimneys that the solar panel people got. But YG doesn’t recognize that.
Or how about if those of us actually off grid were able to apply to any of the incentives.
Up 14 Down 6
YukonMax on Jan 10, 2022 at 6:23 am
-45 and we can't see across the street in the fog. But when driving across the river in Faro, you can see that only the town site is engulfed in that smog and the bulk of it comes from those new generators that Whitehorse gracefully declined to babysit.
It was clear blue sky all along.
Up 9 Down 16
Biom’asses on Jan 9, 2022 at 11:11 pm
Woodcutter and Charlie’s aunt: Wow! Excellent demonstration of the metaphor: Can’t see the forest for the trees… Well done! I see you have gathered the biom’asses to rally the cause of ignorance. It may be worth your while to think about the bigger picture aspect rather than your own self-serving agendas.
The removal of dead trees (beetle/fire killed) has a negative impact on the environment. This is a multivariate problem so I certainly can appreciate your inability to understand it.
Fire killed trees release carbon into the soil which provides a rich environment for new plants and trees.
Fire killed areas are essential habitat niches for insects, birds, and larger animals. When these trees are removed from these habitat niches future forests and all the creatures living there suffer.
Removing fire killed trees, snags and other deadfall contributes to soil erosion and poor soil quality stifling potential growth of new forests.
Moving and removing beetle killed wood gives the beetles a free ride to new feeding grounds - They eat trees I hear.
Moving firewood over long distances introduces the possibility of new fungus, disease or other invasive pests. There needs to be restrictions placed on the transport of firewood to prevent the spread of infestation.
Burning biomass fuel releases more carbon into the atmosphere than fossil fuels do - including coal.
Biomass fuels release toxic air pollution into the atmosphere causing and contributing to a wide array of health issues from heart attacks, asthma and asthmatic attacks, cancers and other related issues.
Particulate matter in soot contains nitrogen oxide which contributes to ground level pollution such as ozone, carbon monoxide, and a number of carcinogens contributing to a litany of other health issues such as CNS impairment and even early death from prolonged exposure.
Biomass fuels and the residual effects are dangerous.
Biomass fuels are anthropomorphic climate change accelerators. Add that to all the destruction that mass produced solar panels are inflicting on the earth, the air we breath, and the resulting contaminants from the production and mining processes one has to wonder what the true motives of the biom’ass cultists are… Curious!?
Do you know the song - Psycho Killer by the Talking Heads? It’s the song of the Biom’ass peoples…
Up 7 Down 4
TheHammer on Jan 9, 2022 at 6:58 pm
Mathew@ "I've built two homes this year in WB (two in 8 days wow!) I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about." Concerning construction, maybe, but as for all your other comments, that's not merely debatable, they're destined for the dumpster as intellectual scrap.
Up 17 Down 4
JohnW on Jan 9, 2022 at 6:10 pm
Scientists know that actual data supersedes fallacious 'appeal to authority' arguments.
Anyone can go https://temperature.global and see for themselves that the earth's temperature has not been warming since 2015, and is actually starting to cool.
The earth does this every time the number of sunspots goes to minimum, as they have in the current solar cycle. This has been shown by thousands of years of sunspot and temperature data.
Bundle up, keep warm, and keep yer stick on the ice, cuz we're all in this together.
Up 37 Down 9
Charlie's Aunt on Jan 8, 2022 at 10:53 pm
@ Biom'asses, get it together. Those of us who burn wood are not causing deforestation. Wood we burn is from dead trees because beetles and wild fires have already done the deforestation. Your comment conjures up comical pictures of green trees being clear cut & burned. Just to keep you up with the times, new wood stoves have catalytic converters that significantly cut emissions.
Thanks for WB estimates Matthew, I wondered how my power bills compared with new constructions, now I know. I heat my 40 year old home with electric baseboard heaters and a big efficient wood stove in basement. I anticipate a higher & possibly $400 power bill for the cold snap, but even when I add in 2 cords of wood for winter, my heating costs seem less than what others pay.
Up 42 Down 7
Woodcutter on Jan 8, 2022 at 9:44 pm
@bio arses...deforestation...lol... what we sell is already either Beatle killed or firekilled. No green trees are harvested
You do understand what's firewood right?
Up 23 Down 1
Woodcutter on Jan 8, 2022 at 9:37 pm
@Firewood, I gave up one of my blocks and gained another. Gave up one so some poor guy could get to work and went to another region for another opportunity, but ya, now even red tape in firewood.
Up 24 Down 7
drum on Jan 8, 2022 at 9:36 pm
The Solar Panels are made in China.
No one seems to look into the ethics of this. Selling it back to Yukon Electric (as it used to be called) seems to be all the people who got the grant to put solar panels on their roofs think or care about.
Up 15 Down 24
Yukoner92 on Jan 8, 2022 at 9:27 pm
@JohnW You just tried to disprove human caused climate change in a small paragraph. Do you REALLY think your little bit of math that you did, can quickly disprove the lifetime work of climatologists around the globe? You, in your small corner of the world here in Yukon, likely with no education, have just disproved scientists from Oxford, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cambridge and elsewhere. And you laid out the case so simply! My hat is off to you sir!
Oh and if you want to use Yukon as an example, I suggest you ask some engineers about what's happening to the permafrost here in Yukon and also why we had record floods just last year that were more severe than even the 2007 floods.
In a totally unrelated matter, here is what the Dunning-Kruger Effect is: The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people wrongly overestimate their knowledge or ability in a specific area. This tends to occur because a lack of self-awareness prevents them from accurately assessing their own skills.
Up 33 Down 3
Salt on Jan 8, 2022 at 4:48 pm
@Just Sayin
Not to cheerlead for our local utilities but as long as the government is importing 100's of families a year to the Yukon, rates will be on the rise. Just wait until gov is forced to act on this crisis and needs $ to build a large new generation source. Electrical rates are actually set by the government through the Yukon Utility Board. ATCO and YEC ask, but the YUB decides.
If there is a long standing problem in society, government is generally at the bottom of it.
Up 26 Down 13
Help! I am surrounded by climate change zombies looking for brains to eat… on Jan 8, 2022 at 3:26 pm
Thanks John W -
It is baffling to me the degree to which people will ignore facts and reality for propaganda. History has demonstrated repeatedly that Liberal Democracies implode with reductionist, identitarian, polemics, grounded in a nascent liberalism advancing itself with the fascistic fervour of a panicked mob consumed by its own emotionalism strangling the life out of any viability of reason… I dare not look… The truth is hard!
The reality of CO2 is that it is necessary for the well-being and the health of plant life and by corollary, human life. When you consider the destructive nature of mass produced solar panels and other dumbass green ideas you have to wonder how batshyt crazy these people have to be to believe what they are being fed…
Up 38 Down 19
JohnW on Jan 8, 2022 at 1:54 pm
How are those solar panels doing? You know, the ones that get unrealistically subsidized instead of investing in reliable generation for the times of the year when we need it. If this feckless LIBgov is going to continue wasting money subsidizing useless Chinese solar panels instead of investing in reliable hydro power, then more diesel and LNG will be used. Burn all the diesel and LNG needed to keep the Yukon warm when it's this cold. It comes from Canadian wells and refineries. That keeps Canadians employed with a roof over their head and food on the table.
Some people believe CO2 'emissions' makes it warmer, but what's the harm in that? Anyway, CO2 greens the planet, it doesn't warm it. There is no reason to be concerned about CO2, do the math. The 35-40 GT of CO2 human activities produce annually amount to only 1% of the 415ppm CO2 in the atmosphere. If CO2 affected the climate, which is doesn't, then the human contribution is negligible; 99% of the CO2 cycle is totally natural. Besides, anyone paying attention to the data knows that Yukon winters are now getting colder longer not warmer.
Up 43 Down 4
Just Sayin' on Jan 8, 2022 at 11:53 am
When will ATCO stop raising their rates?
Up 33 Down 6
Matthew on Jan 8, 2022 at 11:43 am
@BnR spell my name properly if you want to be taken seriously. Considering I've built 2 homes in WB this year, I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about. Each room gets a 1000-1500W baseboard heater. Bigger rooms get several of them. So, take your avg 4 bedroom 2 bathroom house. That alone, without the kitchen, living rooms or open area is about 10,000W.. please prove me otherwise. I'm not saying all are on at the same time, I'm simply stating how much W the avg home would be. Because numbers are the only thing that doesn't lie..
Up 37 Down 6
beaker on Jan 8, 2022 at 11:35 am
@Mike...I gather you are, 1: not heating your house or 2: not telling the real story. I have a house in WB and it costs me 1200+ every month the mercury drops below -30 with my thermostat at 20C. Can you tell me what your solar investment is doing for you or the Yukon right now? I see all these panels around full of snow plus...there is no light. Again an issue of producing energy in the summers when we don't need it...and the govie gives you money for this.. absurd. Comparing 2x6 construction to 2x8 + is ridiculous, apples to oranges. More and more homes like mine will have a new wood stove...if I can find one.
Up 57 Down 5
Groucho d'North on Jan 8, 2022 at 10:29 am
If electrical energy useage and its conservation is so important, why are there so many lights left on overnight in downtown buildings, many of them occupied by government departments? Who knows how many computers, copiers, printers etc. get left on at the end of the workday? They used to be called vampires that silently suck electrical energy from the supply increasing the demand side load.
I propose an internal government competition where each department's electrical consumption is recored and tracked for progress in reducing their energy use. The results to be made public each quarter.
I'd really like to see some leading by example for a change.
Up 24 Down 30
Mike on Jan 8, 2022 at 9:48 am
My super green home in Whistle Bend costs half as much to heat as my 2013 electrified green home I had in Copper Ridge and less than one quarter of what my 2007 oil fed home in Copper Ridge cost before that.
Just added 28 solar panels this past summer as well - the Energuide rating on my home is now 24.
Up 20 Down 17
BnR on Jan 8, 2022 at 8:34 am
Mathew, the average “super green” home in WB doesn’t have 15 kw of electric baseboard. 15kw is closer to the heat loss of older homes built back in the ‘90s and early 2000s. It’s likely closer to 1/2 that. Regardless, even if a home has 15kw of baseboard installed, they’re never all on at one time.
Up 14 Down 42
Biom’asses on Jan 7, 2022 at 9:23 pm
Sorry Thomas we are all about to be punished for our use of electricity soon. So good luck with all that.
Some person mentioned they burn wood for heat. Deforestation is a significant contributor to climate change. Not only that it is injurious and commonly lethal to people with respiratory conditions like asthma, COPD etc.
Green revolution - Shyt for brains bureaucrats succumbing to climate alarmism and the incessant caterwauling of greenies and spoilt, self important, entitled children of the extinction rebellion - LOL!
Up 55 Down 8
Salt on Jan 7, 2022 at 8:58 pm
Just another example of how politicians and a significant number of voters are completely disconnected from reality. We have had more than a decade to deal with this. At this point I'm convinced that nothing will happen until we have rolling brown outs at -40 C and people lose their mind. The Yukon is run by feckless idiots.
Up 43 Down 16
Firewood on Jan 7, 2022 at 4:27 pm
Good luck getting firewood. There’s nothing made available to local woodcutters. Thanks to the red tape and screwup of the Liberals. You’re lucky if you can go out and cut your own.
Up 85 Down 5
woodcutter on Jan 7, 2022 at 4:04 pm
Good to have a wood stove and electricity.
Up 135 Down 14
Thomas Brewer on Jan 7, 2022 at 3:17 pm
But let's get electric vehicles in everyone's driveway, continue building with electric heat, and expand the fleet of diesel generators.
Up 92 Down 15
Matthew on Jan 7, 2022 at 3:10 pm
I wonder how those "super green" houses are doing in Whistlebend, on avg per house for baseboard heaters alone it's 15,000W... think about that 1 moment, the average light bulb is 7W..