By: Darren Chu As a competitive retailer in Alberta’s deregulated electricity market, we often face comments about “the failure of deregulation.” These comments align with the Alberta Federation of Labour’s recent report suggesting that Alberta consider “re-regulating” the electricity market. Reports like these are misleading and don’t paint the full picture. Alberta’s electricity market is complex, to say the least. Generation, transmission, distribution, retailers, it’s a complicated web of entities, each with its own part to play in the delivery of reliable and affordable energy to Albertans. Most of us recall the emergency alert on January 13, 2024, when temperatures plummeted, and the Alberta Emergency Management Agency issued an alert to our phones asking everyone to reduce their consumption and alleviate the strain on our grid. Thanks to the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) and its fast-acting staff, they were able to avert a crisis and prevent rolling blackouts. T

Alberta’s Micro-generation Regulation should be celebrated as one of the country's more progressive and advantageous regulations. The abundance of solar energy in Alberta makes this a no-brainer, and we are thrilled to see this conversation continuing at a national level. The Solar Club™ now counts over a quarter of existing micro-generators in Alberta, which is a testament to the power of rooftop solar and our Hummingbird Virtual Solar Community. At an estimated 85 MW distributed province-wide, our Hummingbird VSC represents over 100,000 installed solar modules and places us second only to the Travers Solar Project. Growth in the solar industry has been tremendous, and we estimate it represents an investment of roughly one million dollars each day. Our Hummingbird VSC is an innovative solution to address Albertans’ concerns regarding large solar farms on agricultural land. By promoting solar installations on rooftops, we preserve viewscapes and alleviate grid load, especial

We have recommended to Nathan Neudorf, Minister of Affordability and Utilities, as well as to Chris Hunt, Alberta’s Utilities Consumer Advocate (UCA) that retailers and regulated providers in the province should be required to provide transparency on rates and possibly publish a total effective rate so that consumers can compare apples and apples when shopping around for an energy provider instead of being served a numbers soup. Sounds reasonable, wouldn’t you say? Perhaps you’ve looked at the UCA website and used their cost comparison tool. If you have, be warned: The site doesn’t always give you a true comparison. It is flawed, and there is a long list of things that need fixing. Nevertheless, until it is updated, we recommend that you look at the fine print and understand some of the background behind the market players. The ATCO Group is an impressive Canadian diversified group of companies and truly a success story on the international stage. It has investments and oper

Earlier this month, the Market Power Mitigation Regulation, Alta Reg 43/2024 , came into effect and is already working to stabilize prices in the market. Where once generators had free reign to economically withhold generation to raise Power Pool prices, they are now limited in their capacity to do so. On July 22nd, at 10:06 PM, the AESO announced that the secondary price cap of $125/MWh would be in effect until the end of the month. This means that generators can only submit generation offers into the market at $125/MWh or less. The secondary price cap comes on the heels of daily price spikes each evening during the recent (and record) heat wave that enveloped large swathes of Alberta in July. We congratulate Minister Neudorf and his team on achieving stabilization of market prices through this new temporary Regulation. We are positive the ripple effect will continue across the industry and provide more stability for Albertans. BACKGROUND Our Government has been working exceptional