Abstract
As recent events have shown, global heating is increasing the risk to many sectors of society, from agriculture to the built environment, to transportation. The energy security of most energy systems, regardless of their size, is also at risk from the effects of global heating: The reliable supply of power to end users can be threatened by extreme weather events affecting transformers and transmission and distribution networks. It can also be a threat to generators that are vulnerable to unpredictable supplies of water, such as thermal or hydroelectric generation facilities. In this paper, we use an energy security methodology to examine some of the possible climate risks to the supply of power from hydroelectricity produced by one of western Canada’s electricity suppliers. The work is of particular interest because it shows how the increasing number of heatwaves that are affecting parts of western Canada and the Pacific Northwest could affect electricity supply in some western Canadian provinces and northern U.S. states.
Highlights
Sustainability 2021, 13, 10308. https://The 2021 heatwave and subsequent forest fires that raged across much of the PacificNorthwest of the United States and British Columbia in Canada led to hundreds of excess deaths and millions of dollars of property damage [1,2]
A recent study by Environment and Climate Change Canada suggests that Canada will be disproportionately affected by global heating, as temperatures in Canada are rising at twice the global rate, and in the Canadian Arctic, at three times the global rate [32]
The example of the risks to the Nelson River Hydroelectric Project shows the utility of using the risk analysis tool with the energy security methods, since it offers a uniform stepwise approach to answer fundamental questions regarding the risks of global heating to energy systems and their energy security
Summary
Sustainability 2021, 13, 10308. https://The 2021 heatwave and subsequent forest fires that raged across much of the PacificNorthwest of the United States and British Columbia in Canada led to hundreds of excess deaths and millions of dollars of property damage [1,2]. The relationship between the increasing concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases and energy security is one aspect of global heating that has not gained public attention to the degree that heatwaves and forest fires have. Consumers of energy products view energy security as a reactive event, becoming an issue only if there is a shortfall in supply or the price of the supply increases. To those responsible for the entities supporting the energy system, energy security is proactive, requiring the system to be designed so that it is resilient, minimizing the availability and affordability risks to the consumers [6]
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