Alberta’s electricity grid modellers are concerned about the transition to renewable energy undermining grid stability and risking power blackouts – with good reason.
Alberta’s electricity generation data for December 24th to 28th 2021 shows a 5-day collapse in wind power declining at one point to as little as 5MW (0.25%) from an installed capacity of 2000MW when the familiar low wind issue was compounded by temperatures down to -32°C, minus 32 degrees C!
At those very low temperatures, conventional lubricating oils and greases don’t work and specialist low-temperature lubricants are needed otherwise machinery can grind to a halt.
Ice accumulation on wind turbine rotors is another reported problem but some operators can remove ice by rapidly braking the spinning rotors so that the rotors flex while the relatively inflexible ice shatters and falls off, or so I’ve read.
Results of modelling 100% renewable energy grid systems show that a significant increase in power generating capacity, energy storage and back-up power would be required to keep the lights on (without emergency measures such as power imports from neighbouring states, firing-up legacy fossil-fuel generators etc,) unless wind turbines can be adapted to mitigate very cold weather more successfully than Alberta’s wind farms are managing at present.
The solution for now, while we wait for low-temperature-ready turbines and their management protocols to be perfected, is that grid system designers, designing for Canada’s continental interior, should add 10% to the usual recommendations of the Wind, solar, storage and back-up system designer; enter 10% more Daily Usage than the designed-for average power demand would suggest, resulting in system design configurations recommending +10% more wind, solar, energy storage and back-up power too.
UPDATE
Scottish Scientist 
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