The UN report on climate change which came out August 9th, 2021, suggests that we have to expect more heat domes, such as the one we went through in June. The electrical power usage during that time, attributed to air-conditioners, almost overloaded BC’s electrical grid. It did ‘brown out’ and even bring down many USA grids.
Many residences in the BC south coastal region—i.e. Vancouver—do not have air-conditioning. Hence, over four hundred of our citizens died of heat related issues. You do not need to be very prescient to know that every residential unit built in southern BC, hereafter, will have air-conditioning included. And thousands of existing units will be retrofitted with air-conditioning, for the safety of our population.
And that increases the demand on electricity.
Just at a time when environmentalists are saying we all need to switch to electrical vehicles by 2030, 2050 at the latest. (I think that is when they are planning to close down all gasoline service stations.)
A UBC economics professor studied the current and potential availability of electrical power in this province. (Did you know, BC does not even now produce enough power for our own usage?) Including the Site C Dam projected production, he concluded that by 2050 there will not be sufficient electrical power production in BC to power everyone’s electrical vehicle.
Much less all of those air conditioners.
So, what? Will we be rationed as to our power usage? That works for people who have access to natural gas, but most of the rural areas of BC do not have that luxury. Will we have to turn off all electrical devices between – say—1:00 pm to 3:00 pm? Pretty tough on our water heaters. And anyone who has to heat up a baby’s bottle. Or in the case of emergency, anyone whose telephone is still reliant on the power grid. (Yes. There are some of us.)
Or will the cost of electric power simply skyrocket? My power bill went up 25% over three years, and I have not changed my usage patterns.
Sure. Some of us might install solar panels. But BC Hydro and Fortis are keeping a pretty tight lid on that. Because they are mandated to be the only authorities that can allow private hydro power collection to the grid.
Wind machines? Don’t think so. They require so many gallons of petroleum products to keep the mechanisms running, they may constitute an element of global warming themselves.
Those ‘Run the River” mini-hydro electric projects that were undertaken a decade or so ago? Nicknamed “Ruin the River” by many environmentalists at the time, I think they have all been discontinued.
Turbine generators? Probably a good option but Oliver proudly put paid to one in our area, years ago.
Now this is the scary part. There is a correlation between electrical power and water service systems as both are big, have the ear of government, and are generally beyond the scope of the ordinary citizen. We just expect water and power to be there.
The Water Sustainability Act mandates that water for residential use comes first ahead of agricultural and other uses. Certain users, such as the City of Kelowna have no limit on their water uptake from the Okanagan system. If this is anything to go by, can we expect a similar Power Sustainability Act, that allows cities to grow as much as they want, and take up as much power as their citizens demand.
Rural and small town life has never been in such jeopardy.
by Jessica Murphy