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ARTICLE · 18 OCTOBER 2016

The Alberta Electricity Market Today

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This evolution has created the current Alberta Electricity Market with the usual four components.

CanadaEnergy and Natural Resources
Kent Howie
Kent Howie
Alan Ross
Alan Ross
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This evolution has created the current Alberta Electricity Market with the usual four components.

1. Generation

Generation is an openly competitive component of the Alberta Electricity Market. The generators choose the form of energy they will convert into the electricity they offer into the "energy only" Power Pool. If dispatched, the generators are paid the competitively determined Pool Price for the hour in which they are delivering their electricity into the AIES. New generation is built with private capital that takes the investment risk over the life of the project. This risk has to be managed because it is not backstopped by customers. There is also no central planning of generation in Alberta – at least there wasn't until Alberta recently announced its new climate change policies.

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