Alberta Restructures Electricity Market

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Alberta is restructuring its electricity market from a deregulated energy market into an energy and capacity market, which would promote investment in generation facilities throughout the province.

A capacity market pays generators both for the capacity they can offer the market, even if their power plants are not operating, plus the price they receive for electricity generation when they are sending power to the grid.

Once implemented, the new market scheme would ensure the reliability of the electrical system, increase power price stability, provide greater revenue certainty for power generators, maintain competitive market forces and drive innovation, according the its proponents.

The Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) (Calgary) would be responsible for designing and implementing the capacity market changes, which are expected to take three years and be in place by 2021.

The province may need up to $25 billion of new electrical generation investments in order to support its growing electricity needs, due in part to the phase-out of coal-fired generation assets, and to meet the 30% target for renewable energy capacity by 2030. In order to support these goals, the AESO intends to support 5,000 megawatts (MW) of additional renewable energy capacity.

Coal-fired power plants currently comprise about 51% of Alberta's total electric generation.

Alberta's market is unique in Canada in that the province does not have a crown corporation, which is publicly owned, but instead depends upon publicly traded power generation companies that construct power plants based on future electricity prices.

Industrial Info is tracking 54 renewable energy projects in Alberta with a value of $11.7 billion and 29 fossil fuel power projects valued at $3.8 billion.

Among those three renewable energy projects in Alberta tracked by Industrial Info are:

• The 130-MW Garden Plain windfarm, under development by TransAlta Corporation (NYSE:TAC) (Calgary), is scheduled to start construction in late 2018.
• The 16-MW Vauxhall solar project, under development by Canadian Solar's (NASDAQ:CSIQ) (Guelph, Ontario) subsidiary C&B Alberta Solar Development LLC, is scheduled to begin construction in late 2018.
• The 330-MW Amisk hydroelectric project, in early development by AHP Development Corporation (Calgary, Alberta), is scheduled to begin construction in 2022.

The AESO started taking bids from renewable energy developers in March in order to move toward the 30% renewable goal, but the grid operator does not want to introduce too much renewable energy at one time, as this would drive down the price of electricity and hurt the market.

The renewable energy rush is in high gear in Alberta as the province implements its plan to increase wind, solar and hydroelectric power capacity and move away from dependence upon fossil fuels.

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