NERC Reliability Auditor. Grid operations expert. Director - https://teapaw.org/t.co/FBLb3jDcHe, https://teapaw.org/t.co/lUFfmkeTUu. Former IESO Grid & OH Generation & Transmission Operator.
Kingsville ON
Joined December 2012
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Quebec continues as a net electricity importer, not even counting Labrador imports. Seems that water supplies for their massive hydro facilities continue to be challenged.
HQ took advantage of selling now and then when prices are elevated.
October daily output from my home micro #solarassist energy facility.
300 W of PV modules connected via matching grid tie inverter. Typical peak output 165 W year-round with momentary up to 190 W. Limited by panel & inverter efficiency.
29.26 kWh energy produced for month.
System configuration notes:
Non-tracking panels, manual seasonal azimuth adjustment. Full southern 180° exposure. Summer morning shade to 10:00 and evening due to sun's wide sweep NE position.
Peak daily kWh output per month: 1.29 135 1.39 1.42 1.39 1.38 1.34 1.30 1.25 1.29
Tom Hess ⚡️ retweeted
Yin: today sees Ontario’s nuclear capacity hitting a low not seen for decades.
Overnight Bruce Power’s unit 5 was shut down as per the refurbishment schedule. Coupled with the removal of Pickering NGS’s at the end of September this is over 2.8 GW of capacity lost this fall.
1/4
Tom Hess ⚡️ retweeted
Nice wind lull going on. If you follow the white Ontario demand line, we never stop running gas, so we are charging batteries with gas and then discharging that gas-generated energy during the peaks. The emissions savings of gas-powered batteries? 🤷🏻♂️ 😂
Bruce Unit 6 has reached a continuous run of 500 days today, almost 1.4 years & counting!
Its first grid connection occurred in 1984.
Reliable 24/7/365 performance!
#CANDU 🍁 #NuclearEnergy 🇨🇦 Naturally.
Tom Hess ⚡️ retweeted
Cavemen Issues Dire Warning That The Wheel Is Going To Eliminate Countless Jobs
NOAA published Sep data & the 12-month average global temperature anomaly was +1.15°C.
ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitor…
Tropospheric anomaly data is included for reference.
nsstc.uah.edu/data/aosc/Glob…
(Tropospheric data is 12-month, shifted from its 14.11°C base to 13.9°C for comparison.)
Global land & ocean temperature is trending as the 2nd warmest year on record January to September.
Haywood plots are a progressive year to date average.
ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitor…
Meanwhile, the North American continent is trending as the 4th warmest year January to September.
Haywood plots are a progressive year to date average. ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitor…
When it comes back...
What if the ice age came back? 🧊 Chicago, Toronto, New York, Oslo, Stockholm and Berlin would be under the ice. London would not: the ice stopped about 150 km short. Is your city under the ice?
❄️ 20,000 years ago: the last ice age at its peak
🏔️ Ice over 3 km thick over central Canada
🇺🇸 Chicago, New York: under the ice
🌍 Oslo, Stockholm, Berlin, Dublin: under the ice
🇬🇧 London: no ice, the nearest ~150 km north
Is your city under the ice? 👇
Tom Hess ⚡️ retweeted
On this day in Canadian Nuclear History:
- In 1990 @opg Darlington Unit 2 entered commercial service.
The first unit of the "A" 4-pack to enter service, the planned "B" units were never constructed. Hydro's plans also included the potential for an additional 4-pack, Darlington "C".
Tom Hess ⚡️ retweeted
"Hydro-Québec bid 10.4 TWh a year."
they closed a nuclear power plant for this alchemy?
In 2025 ON was a net exporter of nearly 8 TWh to QC - mostly when natural gas was the marginal generator.
through Q3, 2026's net exports to QC are up another 12%
"One project alone [the Champlain Hudson Power Express] could provide 1,000 megawatts of hydropower – 50 percent of Indian Point's capacity – and that project has all its approvals."
- Paul Gallay, Riverkeeper president, January 2017
Yesterday, CHPE delivered zero.
It wasn't an outage. NYISO listed the line as available at its full 1,250 MW for all 24 hours, and Hydro-Québec scheduled nothing across it. The last time that happened was July 28. The drop came fast: CHPE carried 15–20 GWh a day from Sept 28 to Oct 1, then 7.6 GWh on Oct 2, about 3 GWh on Oct 3 and 4, and nothing on Oct 5.
Is that allowed? Yes. Hydro-Québec's contract with NYSERDA has no daily or hourly delivery requirement. According to the PSC order approving it:
The only floor is seasonal. Hydro-Québec has to deliver 40% of its promised annual amount in each six-month period.
That floor isn't enforced yet. It's measured over three seasons and doesn't start counting until the third, so the first real test is around summer 2027.
Outages shrink it. It's reduced whenever the line is down, and for curtailment and force majeure.
Hydro-Québec is paid only for what arrives. A zero day costs ratepayers nothing, and also delivers nothing.
The promise was much bigger than the floor. Hydro-Québec bid 10.4 TWh a year. When the PSC approved the contract, it said that number showed the "objective to fill the CHPE line to maximum capacity for 95% of the year." Since June 1, CHPE has delivered 0.68 TWh, about 19% of that pace.
Over the entire day: New York used 378 GWh. Gas supplied 36%, nuclear 20%, hydro 18%, solar 9%, wind 9% and imports 8%. Demand peaked at 18.0 GW at noon, and NYC's highest-priced hour hit $97/MWh.
Quebec continues as a net electricity importer, not even counting Labrador imports. Seems that water supplies for their massive hydro facilities continue to be challenged.
HQ took advantage of selling now and then when prices are elevated.
September daily output from my home micro #solarassist energy facility.
300 W of PV modules connected via matching grid tie inverter. Typical peak output 165 W year-round with momentary up to 190 W. Limited by panel & inverter efficiency.
23.56 kWh energy produced. More cloud.
System configuration notes:
Non-tracking panels, seasonal azimuth adjustment. Full southern 180° exposure. Summer morning shade to 10:00 and evening due to sun's wide sweep NE position.
Peak daily kWh output per month to September: 1.29 135 1.39 1.42 1.39 1.38 1.34 1.30 1.25