Electrical Overhaul
Whether it's integrating more and more green energy into our grid, building capacity and infrastructure for electric vehicles, or working to help families, businesses, and essential services get access to batteries that allow them to save money and protect themselves and their equipment from service disruptions, it's time to get ambitious about electricity.
The Problem
Our electrical infrastructure is struggling to keep up, especially in rural Alberta - and that's not a small problem. A power outage during an extreme weather situation, whether it's extreme cold or extreme heat, can have fatal consequences. Beyond that, outages can cost residents and businesses thousands of dollars in damage if they go for too long - and even a short outage forces everyone to restart their computers, set their digital clocks, and wait for everything to start connecting again.
The Cause
This problem is one that's just been left to the side for a while because it hasn't been as pressing as others - and because the technology to provide more concrete, coherent solutions just wasn't where it needed to be in order to actually address the issue in an affordable, effective way.
As well, the problem has been exacerbated by our crumbling infrastructure provincially and the impacts of increasingly-dramatic and impactful weather conditions in recent years, meaning that our time to respond to the problem before it becomes serious is dramatically shortened.
My Proposal
My proposal comes in two forms - a short-term and a long-term proposal.
Short-term, I would request that the City create a zero-interest loan plan for residents and businesses who have a pressing and immediate need for electrical security that would allow them to install home battery storage units in a way that's affordable and accessible. This would be targeted at businesses and residents who are at-risk of serious health impacts from a power outage, such as seniors' residents and senior care facilities. For anyone who doesn't qualify for that, there would be an option to take out a low-interest loan from the City to cover those costs and install a similar project. The payment plan for each version will work to be minimally impactful, primarily trying to not cost more than what a resident will get in savings from these installations.
Long-term, I think we need to ensure that Camrose is capable of providing electricity for itself. I strongly believe in both geothermal and solar energy as valid options, and if we combine strong, sensible investment in those fields with a smart system of electricity storage, we can make sure that the City is making every single dollar stretch as far as possible, while helping our current public buildings like the Edgeworth Centre and Aquatic Centre cover their costs and providing energy security for our community as much as possible.
Long-term, Camrose needs to invest in making sure that it has capacity for long-term storage and power generation through its public infrastructure - evaluation should be done for each building that the City is responsible for to determine whether batteries and power generation options could reduce their expenses and increase their electric stability within a reasonable timeframe.
The Outcome
The outcome of adopting this policy would mean that Camrosians would be able to reduce their electric bill long-term and help maintain stable power for their homes and businesses - for high-risk Camrosians in particular, this program means that they are kept significantly more safe from intense weather events. It means that blackouts will become less and less of an issue, and service providers will have a window between an outage being reported and an outage being experienced to fix the problem. Ultimately, if this policy is successfully adopted, it will be unnoticeable everywhere except your electric bill.