On November 29, 2016,
the Government of Alberta announced that it had tabled Bill 34: Electric Utilities Amendment Act,
2016 (Bill 34) in the Alberta Legislature. When passed,
Bill 34 will add an additional section to the Electric
Utilities Act, S.A. 2003, c. E-5.1 (the EUA). The purpose of
Bill 34 is to allow the Balancing Pool, established in 1999 to
manage the transition to competition in Alberta's electricity
industry (the Balancing Pool), to borrow money from the province to
manage its funding obligations.
As we previously discussed
here and
here, a number of companies in Alberta announced in the spring
of 2016 that they would be terminating their Power Purchase
Arrangements (PPAs) with coal-fired power plants in that province.
As a result, under subsection 96(3) of the EUA, a PPA that is
terminated is deemed to have been sold to the Balancing Pool and
the Balancing Pool becomes responsible for offering the capacity
into the market and making payments under
