China approves two more domestic coronavirus vaccines

Issued on: 25/02/2021 - 

China approved Sinopharm's first Covid-19 vaccine in December 

Ernesto BENAVIDES AFP

Beijing (AFP)

China's drug authority said Thursday it had approved two more coronavirus vaccines made by domestic companies for public use.

The vaccines made by CanSino Biologics and a unit of Sinopharm were given conditional approvals after they were found protective against Covid-19, said the National Medical Products Administration.

Conditional approvals help to speed emergency drugs to market in cases when clinical trials are yet to meet normal standards but indicate therapies will work.

Sinopharm affiliate Wuhan Institute Of Biological Products says its vaccine has an efficacy rate of 72.51 percent, while the overall efficacy for CanSino's stands at 65.28 percent after 28 days.

China has now approved four domestic vaccines, after approving Sinovac's CoronaVac jab earlier this month, and another Sinopharm product in December.

On Thursday, the Chinese drug agency said it would require both licence holders to "continue carrying out relevant research, complete the conditional requirements, and submit follow-up research results in a timely manner".

But the published efficacy rates of China's vaccines remain behind rival jabs by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which have 95 percent and 94 percent rates respectively.

China has been rushing to develop homegrown jabs, and set a goal to vaccinate 50 million people by mid-February. As of February 9, more than 40 million doses had been administered.

The country is also providing free vaccines to 53 countries, and exporting to more than 20 others who have made purchasing requests.

© 2021 AFP

UK artist hopes world's largest art canvas sparks humanitarian movement

Issued on: 25/02/2021 - AFP

Contemporary artist Sacha Jafri hopes his Guinness World Record-holding painting, which spanned 1,595.76 square metres (17,176 sq ft) of the ballroom at Dubai's Atlantis, The Palm hotel, will spark a humanitarian movement GIUSEPPE CACACE AFP/File

Dubai (AFP)

British artist Sacha Jafri unveiled on Thursday 70 framed sections of his work "Journey of Humanity", the world's largest painting on canvas, which will be auctioned off to raise millions for charity.

The 44-year-old contemporary artist hopes his Guinness World Record-holding painting, which spanned 1,595.76 square metres (17,176 sq ft) of the ballroom at Dubai's Atlantis, The Palm hotel, will spark a humanitarian movement.

The colourful painting now adorns the walls of the luxury hotel's ballroom in 70 separate framed pieces of varying sizes that will be sold at auctions in the coming years.

The aim is to raise at least $30 million to fund health, sanitation and education initiatives for children in impoverished parts of the world.

But Jafri, who is currently based in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, said he has an even bigger goal.

"I don't want this to be a one-off thing... I want to actually help change the world, and the way to do that is we're going to put the internet in all the poorest communities of the world," the artist told AFP on Thursday.

"Then we can bring education in, and give (children) a real education... and where are they going to put that? Back into their community.

"All you need is five success stories from those communities, and you can change the world. That's what we're going to try to do. It's going to take 10 years, but we can do it."

- 'Humanity-inspired' -

For Jafri, the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic across the globe has resonated with him, highlighting a break between humanity and the planet and driving him to focus his efforts on connecting people to counter its impact on children.

"When humanity becomes disconnected from the soul of the Earth, it's a far bigger problem than Covid-19 will ever be," he said.

"We were allowing the destruction of the planet, that's well known, but what isn't well known is that we were allowing the destruction of humanity. That's unforgivable," added Jafri, sporting a paint-splattered blazer over jeans, a white T-shirt and cowboy boots.

The "humanity-inspired" artwork took Jafri seven months to complete -- working at a pace of 18 to 20 hours a day -- and used more than 6,000 litres (1,500 gallons) of paint and over 1,000 brushes to lay down almost 300 layers of colour on the massive canvas.

Children from 140 countries submitted artwork online to be included in Jafri's creation, which was completed at the end of September, shortly before it was confirmed by Guinness World Records as the "Largest Art Canvas".

"It depicts the soul of the Earth, nature, humanity itself, the love and nurture of the mother, the guidance and protection of the father, as they guide their child through life and enable them to feel safe, loved and brave, so they can grow their wings, make their dreams come true and take them into the solar system," Jafri told AFP in September.

© 2021 A

Boeing studied 777 engine upgrade before Denver incident: report

Issued on: 25/02/2021 

Boeing had been studying upgrades to 777 engine covers ahead of the weekend incident that deposited debris on a Denver suburb 

Michael Ciaglo GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File

New York (AFP)

Boeing had been working to strengthen engine covers on the 777 for about two years before last weekend's scare on a United Airlines flight, according to a report Thursday.

Boeing was working with the Federal Aviation Administration to strengthen protective engine covers following similar problems on earlier flights preceding Saturday's emergency landing, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The report comes amid a National Transportation Safety Board investigation of Saturday’s United flight, which returned to Denver soon after disembarking after the engine caught fire and began breaking apart.

No one was hurt in the incident, but the episode raised questions about maintenance on the jets.

On Tuesday night, the FAA ordered inspections of all Pratt & Whitney engines similar to the one that broke apart.

Investigators have attributed the Denver incident to a fan blade that broke off soon after takeoff due to metal fatigue and apparently breached the engine cover, known as a cowling.

Both Boeing and the FAA avoided discussing specifics on the efforts to modify the 777. Such changes typically require signficant evaluation and testing.

Boeing is "in constant communication with our customers and the FAA, and engaged in ongoing efforts to introduce safety and performance improvements across the fleet," a Boeing spokesman said.

"We will continue to follow the guidance of the FAA on this issue and all matters related to safety and compliance, and we continue to provide updates to our customers."

The FAA said it focused on fan blade inspections in its most recent order on the Pratt & Whitney engines and on an earlier directive after a 2018 incident on a 777.

"Redesigning airframe and engine components is a complex process. One of the top priorities to date has been reducing the risk of a fan-blade failure that could lead to cowling damage," an FAA spokesman said.

"The FAA engages with manufacturers to continuously enhance safety. Any proposed design change to a critical piece of structure must be carefully evaluated and tested to ensure it provides an equivalent or improved level of safety and does not introduce unintended risks."

© 2021 AFP

Ticket to ride: Vaccine passports divide world

Issued on: 25/02/2021 

An Israeli medical worker presents her certificate of vaccination after receiving a second Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 shot, but the issue of virus passports has divided Europe JACK GUEZ AFP


Paris (AFP)

The idea of vaccine passports, which would allow people who have been inoculated the freedom to travel, is gaining traction.

While some countries trumpet them as a way out for the hard-hit tourism and airline industries, others are more sceptical with only a tiny percentage of the world's population vaccinated.

As European Union leaders debate the idea Thursday amid claims that it could be divisive and discriminatory, we look at the thorny issue.


- The backers -

EU countries and Gulf emirates that rely on tourism have been the passports' biggest promoters.

Last month Greece called on Brussels to allow "vaccine certificates" for travel within the EU.

And Athens has since signed a deal with Israel to allow vaccinated people to travel between them, with its tourism minister Harry Theocharis floating a similar deal with Britain.

Cyprus -- which relies heavily on British tourists -- says it is also keen on an agreement with Israel, which is in talks with Malta too.

Spain, Europe's most popular summer sun destination, sees vaccine passports as possibly "a very important element to guarantee a safe return to mobility."

Bulgaria and Italy too say they could pave the way back to "normal activity" .

The Gulf-based airline giants Emirates and Etihad were among the first to say they will test an application that verifies vaccinations.

- Nordics almost there -

Sweden and Denmark have already announced electronic certificates that could allow bearers to travel abroad, attend sports or cultural events and even dine in Danish restaurants.

Iceland, not a member of the EU but part of its Schengen travel zone, started issuing digital vaccination certificates in January to ease travel between countries.

Poland and Estonia arrivals who show they have been vaccinated or hold a negative Covid test are exempt from quarantine.

- WHO: No 'for now' -

Estonian firm Guardtime is running a pilot vaccination certification scheme and is working with the World Health Organization (WHO) on extending it internationally.

But while the WHO believe it could help track vaccine rollouts, "for now" they are against using it for travel.

"There are still critical unknowns regarding the efficacy of vaccination in reducing transmission and limited availability of vaccines," it said last month.

According to an AFP tally, only 222 million jabs have so far been given globally -- mostly of vaccines that require a second dose -- to a world population that now tops 7.8 billion.

More than one in every five people live in countries that have not even started vaccinating.

- 'Too soon' -

France and Germany are cool on the vaccine passport idea.

"Not everyone has access to vaccines. And we don't know if they prevent transmission," French Health Minister Olivier Veran insisted in January.

The debate should only be broached "in a few months' time", he said.

Germany is also against giving a vaccinated minority privileges denied everyone else.

But it doesn't rule out the private sector doing it.

"If a restaurant wants to open only to vaccinated people, it would be difficult to forbid that," says Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht.

Belgium is likewise baulking at having activities contingent on vaccination "passports".

As of Thursday, at least 10.17 million people across the EU have been fully vaccinated with two doses -- only 2.3 percent of the population -- according to AFP's tally from official sources.

- Airlines eager -

Airlines have led the push for vaccine passports, with Australian carrier Qantas the first to call it "a necessity".

Emirates and Etihad, who dominate the Gulf air hubs, said they will trial the digital "IATA Travel Pass" developed by the International Air Transport Association in the next few months, while Air New Zealand signed up to it this week.

© 2021 AF

Turkey's pro-Kurdish party MPs targeted in legal barrage

By Daren Butler 

   

© Reuters/SERTAC KAYAR FILE PHOTO: HDP co-leader Pervin Buldan takes part in a protest against the detention of their local politicians in Diyarbakir

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's parliament is set to consider legal bids to lift the immunity from prosecution of 21 pro-Kurdish MPs, applying more pressure on a political party targeted in a years-long crackdown and that now faces calls for its closure.

The government accuses the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), parliament's third largest, of ties to Kurdish militants and stepped up its accusations after Turkish captives were killed in Iraq earlier this month.

The HDP in response criticised President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party (AKP) for using a failed military rescue mission to target it politically and to sow ethnic division, and the European Union has expressed concern over the legal moves.

AKP Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop told reporters on Thursday it was "saddening" for parliament to have to deal with so many dossiers with such charges, including "manslaughter", "spreading terrorist propaganda" and "provoking hatred".

State-owned Anadolu news agency said 20 HDP deputies and one from an affiliated party were among 25 targeted by the cases. The HDP, which has 56 members in the 660-seat assembly, denies links with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.

The legal bids will first be handled by a parliamentary commission which will decide whether to put them to a vote in the general assembly. The timing of the process was unclear.

Nine of the HDP deputies were accused in connection with protests triggered by an Islamic State militant attack on the Syrian town of Kobani in 2014. The subsequent protests in Turkey led to the deaths of 37 people.

Ankara said this month in Iraq's Gara region the PKK executed 13 prisoners, including Turkish military and police personnel, during an army operation meant to rescue them. The PKK said the captives died during clashes.

HDP co-leader Pervin Buldan, one of those accused over the Kobani protests, said this week the government had sought to make political capital out of the Gara operation.

"They began to attack the HDP from all directions. Each day the 'shut down the HDP' chorus continues to cause uproar, show enmity towards Kurds and spread the hatred climate," she said.

Erdogan's nationalist allies have repeatedly called for the HDP's closure over links to the PKK, which Turkey, the EU and United States designate a terrorist group. The PKK has waged an insurgency in the mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey since 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

The crackdown on the HDP in recent years has included the arrests of thousands of party officials and members, while dozens of its elected mayors and lawmakers have been ousted.

EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano said earlier this week the EU was "gravely concerned" about continuing pressure on the HDP, including "what seem to be politically motivated judicial proceedings".

(Reporting by Daren Butler; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)

Patty Murray rebukes Rand Paul for 'harmful misrepresentations' at historic confirmation hearing for Rachel Levine

A Senate confirmation hearing is now underway for Dr. Rachel Levine, President Joe Biden's pick to serve as assistant health secretary, who would make history as the first out transgender federal official to be confirmed by the Senate.

© Biden Transition Team President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Dr. Rachel Levine to serve as assistant secretary for Health at the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, the chair of the Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee, rebuked GOP Sen. Rand Paul, saying that he had made "harmful misrepresentations" after he appeared to equate gender confirmation surgery with "genital mutilation."

Paul began his questioning by saying, "genital mutilation has been nearly universally condemned," and then went on to say, "Dr. Levine, do you believe that minors are capable of making such a life changing decision as changing one's sex?"

Levine responded by saying, "Transgender medicine is a very complex and nuanced field with robust research and standards of care that have been developed. If I am fortunate enough to be confirmed as the assistant secretary of health, I will look forward to working with you and your office and coming to your office and discussing the particulars of the standards of care for transgender medicine."

Later, Murray criticized the line of questioning, saying to Levine, "I appreciated your thoughtful and medically-informed response to Sen. Paul's questions earlier in the hearing. It is really critical to me that our nominees be treated with respect and that our questions focus on their qualifications and the work ahead of us rather than on ideological and harmful misrepresentations like those we heard from Sen. Paul earlier and I will focus on that as chair of this committee."

Levine previously served as the Pennsylvania health secretary under Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's administration.

"Dr. Rachel Levine will bring the steady leadership and essential expertise we need to get people through this pandemic -- no matter their zip code, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability -- and meet the public health needs of our country in this critical moment and beyond," Biden said in a statement on the nomination at the time it was announced. "She is a historic and deeply qualified choice to help lead our administration's health efforts.



The hearing to consider Levine's nomination comes the same day that the House is slated to vote on the Equality Act, which will amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to protect people from being discriminated based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing and other services as well as access to public accommodations such as restaurants.

The hearing before the Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee is also considering the nomination of Dr. Vivek Murthy to serve as US surgeon general, a role Murthy held under the Obama administration.

As surgeon general under President Barack Obama, Murthy helped lead the national response to the Ebola and Zika viruses and the opioid crisis, among other health challenges. If confirmed, Murthy would be poised to play a key role in the Biden administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

A number of Obama administration nominees have faced Senate confirmation hearings this week, including Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland, Interior Secretary nominee Deb Haaland and Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Xavier Becerra.

So far nine of Biden's 23 Cabinet-level nominees requiring Senate approval have been confirmed, according to a CNN tracker. But one high-profile nomination -- Neera Tanden, Biden's pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget -- is in major jeopardy amid bipartisan opposition.

Levine isn't the Biden administration's only historic pick.

Earlier this month, the Senate confirmed Alejandro Mayorkas as Homeland Security secretary, the first Latino and immigrant to serve at the helm of the department, and Pete Buttigieg as transportation secretary, making him the first Senate-confirmed LGBTQ Cabinet secretary.

Why Canada should invest in 'macrogrids' for greener more reliable electricity

Blake Shaffer, Assistant professor, Economics and School of Public Policy, University of Calgary, 

Brett Dolter, Assistant Professor, Economics, University of Regina, 

Nicholas Rivers, Canada Research Chair in Climate and Energy Policy, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa, 

and G. Kent Fellows, Research associate, public policy, University of Calgary 

As the recent disaster in Texas showed, climate change requires electricity utilities to prepare for extreme events. This “global weirding” leads to more intense storms, higher wind speeds, heatwaves and droughts that can threaten the performance of electricity systems.

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz Water rushes through the Carillon Hydro electric dam in Québec.

The electricity sector must adapt to this changing climate while also playing a central role in mitigating climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced a number of ways, but the electricity sector is expected to play a central role in decarbonization. Zero-emissions electricity can be used to electrify transportation, heating and industry and help achieve emissions reduction in these sectors.

Enhancing long-distance transmission is viewed as a cost-effective way to enable a clean and reliable power grid, and to lower the cost of meeting our climate targets. Now is the time to strengthen transmission links in Canada.
Insurance for climate extremes

An early lesson from the Texas power outages is that extreme conditions can lead to failures across all forms of power supply. The state lost the capacity to generate electricity from natural gas, coal, nuclear and wind simultaneously. But it also lacked transmission connections to other electricity systems that could have bolstered supply.

Long-distance transmission offers the opportunity to escape the correlative clutch of extreme weather, by accessing energy and spare capacity in areas not beset by the same weather patterns. For example, while Texas was in its deep freeze, relatively balmy conditions in California meant there was a surplus of electricity generation capability in that region — but no means to get it to Texas. Building new transmission lines and connections across broader regions can act as an insurance policy, providing a back-up for regions hit by the crippling effects of climate change.© CP Photo/Robert Galbraith The 1998 Quebec ice storm left 3.5 million Quebecers and a million Ontarians, as well as thousands in in New Brunswick, without power.

Transmission is also vulnerable to climate disruptions, such as crippling ice storms that leave wires temporarily inoperable. This may mean using stronger poles when building transmission, or burying major high-voltage transmission links.

In any event, more transmission links between regions can improve resilience by co-ordinating supply across larger regions. Well-connected grids that are larger than the areas disrupted by weather systems can be more resilient to climate extremes.
Lowering the cost of clean power

Adding more transmission can also play a role in mitigating climate change. Numerous studies have found that building a larger transmission grid allows for greater shares of renewables onto the grid, ultimately lowering the overall cost of electricity.

In a recent study, two of us looked at the role transmission could play in lowering greenhouse gas emissions in Canada’s electricity sector. We found the cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions is lower when new or enhanced transmission links can be built between provinces. 

© (Authors) Average cost increase to electricity in Canada at different levels of decarbonization, with new transmission (black) and without new transmission (red). 

New transmission lowers the cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Much of the value of transmission in these scenarios comes from linking high-quality wind and solar resources with flexible zero-emission generation that can produce electricity on demand. In Canada, our system is dominated by hydroelectricity, but most of this hydro capacity is located in five provinces: British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Québec and Newfoundland and Labrador.

In the west, Alberta and Saskatchewan are great locations for building low-cost wind and solar farms. Enhanced interprovincial transmission would allow Alberta and Saskatchewan to build more variable wind and solar, with the assurance that they could receive backup power from B.C. and Manitoba when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining.

When wind and solar are plentiful, the flow of low cost energy can reverse to allow B.C. and Manitoba the opportunity to better manage their hydro reservoir levels. Provinces can only benefit from trading with each other if we have the infrastructure to make that trade possible.

A recent working paper examined the role that new transmission links could play in decarbonizing the B.C. and Alberta electricity systems. We again found that enabling greater electricity trade between B.C. and Alberta can reduce the cost of deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions by billions of dollars a year. Although we focused on the value of the Site C project, the analysis showed that new transmission would offer benefits of much greater value than a single hydroelectric project

.

© (Authors) The value of enabling new transmission links 

between Alberta and B.C. as greenhouse gas emissions

 reductions are pursued.

Getting transmission built

With the benefits that enhanced electricity transmission links can provide, one might think new projects would be a slam dunk. But there are barriers to getting projects built.

First, electricity grids in Canada are managed at the provincial level, most often by Crown corporations. Decisions by the Crowns are influenced not simply by economics, but also by political considerations. If a transmission project enables greater imports of electricity to Saskatchewan from Manitoba, it raises a flag about lost economic development opportunity within Saskatchewan. Successful transmission agreements need to ensure a two-way flow of benefits.

Second, transmission can be expensive. On this front, the Canadian government could open up the purse strings to fund new transmission links between provinces. It has already shown a willingness to do so.

Lastly, transmission lines are long linear projects, not unlike pipelines. Siting transmission lines can be contentious, even when they are delivering zero-emissions electricity. Using infrastructure corridors, such as existing railway right of ways or the proposed Canadian Northern Corridor, could help better facilitate co-operation between regions and reduce the risks of siting transmission lines.

If Canada can address these barriers to transmission, we should find ourselves in an advantageous position, where we are more resilient to climate extremes and have achieved a lower-cost, zero-emissions electricity grid.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Brett Dolter receives funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Energy Modelling Initiative (https://emi-ime.ca/). Brett Dolter previously provided consulting services to SaskPower.

Blake Shaffer has received funding from Natural Resources Canada, and has provided policy advisory services for the Governments of B.C., Alberta, and Canada. He previously held senior energy trading positions at Transalta Corporation and BC Hydro.

Nicholas Rivers receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

G. Kent Fellows does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment

Opinion: Texas should spark us to innovate our grid – quicker
National Post
By Tomas van Stee   

© Provided by National Post Ice and snow cling to a tree near a powerline in Toronto in a file photo from Dec. 26, 2013. Canadians, like our American neighbours, have approached electrical grid innovation with a “we'll get to it later” mentality, writes Tomas van Stee.

It’s a black swan event that should scare us. Texas and adjacent states were rocked by three days of record-setting cold that froze the apparatus of energy production, leading to four million outages and dozens of dead this past week. Could something like this happen in Canada? Actually, yes.

Canadians, like our American neighbours, have approached electrical grid innovation with a “we’ll get to it later” mentality. The Texas experience reminds us that we need to be agile innovators.

The Texas energy problems stem from a simple fact: demand exceeded supply.

We’ve always expected electrical supply would meet our needs. As jurisdictions focus on such renewables as wind and solar, it is critical to consider the demand side. What happens if the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow? Factor in a climate crisis that can test HVAC systems with deep freezes or intense heat waves, and what happens if supply falls short of demand?

For operators, innovation can be dangerous, reliability is paramount.

Electrical grid operators have provided reliable electricity for nearly 150 years. But when your focus is reliability, it becomes risky to innovate. We need a grid in this tangled industry where flexible supply and responsive demand can exist simultaneously. To do so, the energy industry must support an environment that allows innovation.

Across North America, there are programs to motivate energy users to be more “responsive,” adjusting demand to meet shortfalls in supply. However, adoption levels are low — about five per cent, on average — because the costs appear to outweigh the benefits. (Ontario leads with a 10 per cent participation rate). In Texas, 35 per cent of its energy supply went offline. It needed a 35 per cent participation rate on the demand side to avoid blackouts. Their five per cent rate fell far short.
Joe Oliver: Why devastating Texas power outages are unlikely in Ontario
Maxim Seferovic: Blame deregulation, not green energy, for Texas power failure

If Canadians wish to avoid a similar shortfall, our grid must become more responsive. How can we make a business case for this?

Making the economics work for a real-time supply and demand match.

One measure is to increase the reliability of responsive energy programs. In these programs, grids incentivize energy users to reduce usage during expensive periods, leading to lower demand. Such programs exist in deregulated markets, such as Alberta’s and Ontario’s, and in Canada’s regulated markets. Recent events, however, give some cause to pause. In Alberta, the grid operator (the Alberta Electrical System Operator) is seeking comments about proposed changes to its Coincident Peak Demand program, and in 2019, it cancelled a possible Demand Response program. In Ontario, last year’s Global Adjustment hiatus (a pause in its largest energy program), added an extra year to ROI for energy storage and load-shifting projects. These events demonstrate the uncertainty of market conditions. While there may be financial benefits when innovating an energy program, investors want the security of stable pricing.

The industry’s complicated nature needs to be addressed. In Alberta, for example, there are nearly 6,000 generators that can connect to the grid — useful additional capacity. But connecting to the grid is complicated, time-consuming and costly. An energy user could spend a year and up to $50,000 applying for their peak demand program, and still be refused. Capable industry participants across North America are hungry to participate but are discouraged by current market rules.

Don’t forget the little guys, and homeowners! To create a more responsive grid, operators need to stop picking winners and let the market regulate itself. I’ve often wondered: Why do our regulated utilities require a minimum 5MW load to participate (this is a huge amount of energy — think auto-plant size). Why is the peak demand program in Alberta limited to natural gas generators? Why are only large businesses allowed to join Ontario’s largest peak demand program? Many companies with IoT devices or homeowners with smart appliances can represent that same volume — why exclude them? Ontario is a leader, having invested $10B in smart meters. This is great, but Ontario is not using that data.

Connect the dots to secure our future and avoid catastrophic blackouts.

Across Canada, we need to innovate and create an environment where supply and demand can meet in real time. The market needs to become far more responsive to future-proof us. The industry needs to open the game to everyone who wants to participate. Make a set of rules and stick to them — providing the security and confidence to invite investment. Finally, make the rules clear. Responsive demand will increase participation and remove barriers to innovation.

Let’s play by the rules we propose to our children: everyone is welcome, the rules are fair, and we share.

Tomas van Stee is an active commentator on energy and economic policy. Currently, he is the Founder and CEO of EnPowered in Waterloo, Ont.

Mandryk: Texas power fiasco underscores need for strong SaskPower

Murray Mandryk 

You don’t mess with Texas … unless you are cold weather …. or perhaps deregulation of your utilities.

© Michael Bell SaskPower crews work on electrical lines at Pense last month as fog limited visibility. MICHAEL BELL / Regina Leader-Post

The oil-rich Lone Star State that perhaps most personifies American ideals of free enterprise, independence and freedom found itself last week crippled not only by a winter snowstorm but also by the outcome of those ideals.

Of course, the first reaction in a Canadian province like Saskatchewan is our usual sympathetic smugness that we are hardier … and simply better regulated.

While it seems as if we here in Saskatchewan are inching away from the vestiges of our social democratic roots, we remain prideful of publicly owned SaskPower’s mandate of supplying affordable electricity to all 691,900 square kilometres of this province. (We are only slightly smaller than 695,602-square-kilometre Texas.)

But does that mean SaskPower and this province are immune from big Texas-like problems we just witnessed? To a large extent we are, but not completely.

If there is a lesson to be learned from Texas, it is the vital need for stable, affordable-for-all and well-regulated electrical power generation. We mostly get that here, but we do have a penchant to forget that lesson.

What Texas faced last week was its perfect storm — both, in terms of weather and governance policies catching up with them.

Unaccustomed to the -20 C temperature, about 4.7 million Texas homes and businesses were left without electricity, heat and running water because of a lack of insulation. Dozens died from either the cold or the storm’s ensuing traffic accidents and even carbon monoxide poisoning as people desperately tried to stay warm.

Gas intakes at plants and in homes froze in place, not designed for extreme weather, and power lines fell to sleet and freezing rain.

However, much of the blame centred around wind turbines that account for 15.7 per cent or 30,000 megawatts of Texas’s total power production. (This is a state that strongly supports fossil fuels over renewables.)

In Saskatchewan, current only 241 megawatts or five per cent of SaskPower’s total 4,893-megawatt generating capacity comes from wind, with another 387 mw about to be added from the Herbert-Riverhurst-Assiniboia area and an additional 300 mw in planning. Turbines here can spin in temperatures as low as -30 C (with windchill being a non-factor) and the winter average output (92 mw an hour) is actually higher than the yearly average (86 mw an hour).

Part of the Texas problem was that (unlike Saskatchewan) its peak electrical requirements come with air conditioners blasting in the summer and that its rotating blackouts were ill-advised for the extreme cold.

But in Saskatchewan, we face a similar problem with an aging/vulnerable infrastructure in need of replacement that’s become a constant battle for SaskPower and a big part of the reason for skyrocketing utility bills in the past few decades.

In response, the Saskatchewan Party in the October election committed to a 10-per-cent reduction on power bills that will likely mean less capacity for the Crown corporation to deal with infrastructure problems.

Admittedly, the Texas calamity remains unique as it was caused by not only the weather event, but also being a jurisdiction where deregulation, lack of preparedness and utility-cost-cutting have run amok for decades. Adding to the problem is that Texas removed itself from the U.S. national grid to save tax dollars.

By contrast, the protocol for SaskPower — that notably had no outages during the recent cold snap — would be to first cut exports and then purchase excess supply from neighbours.

And while several of SaskPower’s large industrial customers have guaranteed supply contracts, even they can have their power cut back to ensure homes and critical infrastructure like hospitals and care homes get power first. This is something that has happened in the past.

The end result of Texas’s go-it-alone, deregulated approach is Texans who were allowed to choose between competing providers are now being hit with $5,000 bills for five days power usage.

Again, that’s something that wouldn’t happen here, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be vigilant.

The biggest lesson from Texas should be a reassessment of SaskPower to make sure Texas doesn’t happen here.

Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

A New Jersey plumber drove to Texas with his family to fix burst pipes and other damage from devastating winter storm

By David Williams, CNN 

A New Jersey plumber who wanted to help Texans dealing with burst pipes and other damage after last week's winter storms drove to Houston with a truck full of tools and got to work.

© courtesy Kisha Pinnock, Esq. New Jersey plumber Andrew Mitchell, right, and his apprentice Isaiah Pinnock have been working in the Houston, Texas, area since Sunday because local plumbers have been overwhelmed with calls.

Andrew Mitchell and his wife, Kisha Pinnock, decided to make the 22-hour drive from Morristown with their 2-year-old son Blake after hearing that local plumbers were overwhelmed with calls and that some customers couldn't get help for weeks. Isaiah Pinnock, who is Kisha's brother and Mitchell's apprentice, went with them.

Before leaving New Jersey, they bought as many plumbing supplies as they could afford, Pinnock said -- because those items are currently hard to find in Texas.

The group arrived in Houston, Texas on Sunday afternoon. Pinnock's sister, who lives in Houston, connected them with several people who had been looking to hire plumbers. They quickly enlisted the services of Mitchell's Plumbing & Heating.

"By the time we got here there was already about four or five jobs lined up from my sister, and we just hit those first and then everything after that has really just been referrals from like the initial customers, like their friends and family," Pinnock, who is a lawyer, said. "Since we've been here, it has really been nonstop."

Pinnock said that her husband and brother had done about 13 jobs since they arrived, and that they have full days scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.

Among those customers was Dedrick Dock, of Spring, Texas. He told CNN that he'd tried to get at least 15 plumbers out to his house before he heard about Mitchell's Plumbing & Heating on social media from a friend's neighbor.

Dock and his family had been staying with relatives for more than a week because of a broken pipe in the garage.

"We had to relocate for over a week because we needed to get someone out there," he said. "And of course, with the plumbers here they were already overwhelmed with the work that was going on."

The group had planned to return home next week, but now said they will stay for about two weeks, because they've gotten so many calls from people who need their help.

"I think that we made a difference, for sure," Pinnock said.

© courtesy Kisha Pinnock, Esq. Andrew Mitchell, right, and Isaiah Pinnock work in a customer's home in Texas.