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By The Canadian Press

Alberta government announces new rules for electricity generators

Mar 11, 2024 | 12:38 PM

Alberta’s government says it is updating its electricity market rules in order to help lower consumers’ utility bills.

Utilities Minister Nathan Neudorf says the UCP government is instituting two temporary measures around the practice of “economic withholding,” a strategy regularly used by power generators in the province’s deregulated free-market electricity system.

Economic withholding is when power producers deliberately hold back all or part of their electricity supply by offering it into the market at a high price, with the goal of increasing the overall pool price.

The practice is not illegal, but has been highly criticized recently as one of the factors that has contributed to soaring consumer power bills in the province.

The new rules will limit the offer price of natural gas generating units owned by large providers, if net revenues cross a predefined threshold.

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They will also require natural gas generating assets to be made available in certain circumstances such as extreme weather and other times of peak demand.

Neudorf says the changes will still allow generators to earn revenue while ensuring Albertans have access to affordable and reliable power.

Medicine Hat’s utility is separate from that of the province and is priced by the city’s energy business. That business is currently under review.