Alberta is leading the way in Canadian utilities’ deregulation, offering promises of more competition and lower prices.
According to industry officials, the changes will also mean that Alberta will soon have surplus power from a variety of sources. And that electricity could become low-cost competition for Sask-atchewan Power Corporation.
The first impacts, though, will be felt by Alberta energy consumers.
Because of deregulation, rural Albertans may one day have the opportunity to negotiate supply and price from the government-owned utility TransAlta.
Through Rural Electrification Associations, communities and municipalities already have some limited say in the delivery of their power. Their influence likely will expand with future deregulation.
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The new Alberta Electric Utilities Act, or Bill 34, is considered by the Canadian electrical industry to be the most comprehensive restructuring of the electrical industry so far attempted in Canada.
The bill does not offer immediate, full-blown competition but over time will allow electricity producers to compete directly on price and production. For the first time they will be able to build more capacity than the system requires, allowing competition on volume.
The integrated utilities that generated, transmitted and distributed electricity to consumers have been broken into four distinct groups of companies – electricity generators, transmitters, operators of the transmission grid and power distributors to customers.
There are incentives for small producers, gearing up to compete with large traditional utilities.
By law, large distribution utilities also will be required for the first time to purchase a portion of their electricity from the small scale independent producers using new production systems to generate power. The large utilities purchase the alternative energy at above-market prices, allowing independents to build their technology and financial base.
