This morning, Feb 21st, 2026, is another typical cold winter morning in Alberta - high atmospheric pressure, calm, and cold at -22 C. And, typically, our power is being supplied almost exclusively by gas-fired generation (97% this morning). While we have good wind and solar generation resources in Alberta, they are not available during these conditions - this is not a criticism, this is just the characteristic of the climate here. The reality is that with elimination of coal-fired generation, Alberta now has no supply diversity under these frequent weather conditions - we are 100% dependent on gas-fired generation for supply adequacy and reliability. We have a fantastically reliable fleet of gas-fired generators, but the lack of diversity makes us vulnerable.
Until nuclear generation is part of the supply mix in Alberta, which is realistically a decade or more away, the only way I can see to create some level of supply diversity during these kinds of conditions is through energy storage. Economically competitive energy storage would do two things for our power system. First, it would enable time shifting of renewable energy production from sunny and windy conditions, when we often have supply surplus, to dark and calm conditions when we often have no resource diversity. And second, when combined with renewable generation facilities, it would enable a degree of dispatchability that would make renewables more operationally valuable to the power system. But the key is economics - it's gotta be profitable in our market context.
Having spent a third of my career in a hydroelectric power system, I've seen first hand the reliability, supply adequacy, and operability benefits of energy storage that multi-seasonal reservoir hydro provides. When I worked as an integrated resource planner, we studied the effects of introducing combined cycle plants into a hydroelectric system and found that it enabled a tremendous degree of operational and economic optimization while also providing resource diversity and security under low water flow conditions. When I look at Alberta, I think that if it were possible to combine storage benefits similar to a hydro system with the fantastic gas-fired resources we have, the result would be a very robust, flexible, resilient, and reliable power system.
Alberta currently has 190 MW of stand-alone energy storage, but it typically only provides contingency reserves (110 MW this morning), not energy, due to market economics. This could change with the redesign of our energy market combined with advancements in storage technology that improve duration and lower costs. But it all hinges on economics - as great as storage is operationally, if its not an attractive investment, its not gonna happen. So my hope is that our redesigned energy market provides the right incentives to move energy storage beyond simply providing operating reserves in Alberta.
