Key Dates

October 12, 2023 | Stakeholder Session | Market Pathways Industry Update

September 11, 2023 | Market Pathways Primer Stakeholder Comments posted

Objective

Identify market pathways that inform the future evolution of Alberta’s market design considering transformational changes expected on the Alberta Interconnected Electric System (AIES).

Purpose

Identify market pathways, in collaboration with stakeholders, that inform the future evolution of Alberta’s market design considering transformational changes expected on the AIES. This priority initiative is intended to evaluate the sustainability of the current market design and provide recommendations for change. A key focus will be on how to achieve reliability and affordability through competition.

Collaborative Engagement Approach

Engage stakeholders early on to effectively collaborate on issues and options for market design. As part of our initial thoughts, the AESO is exploring a targeted workgroup approach that could include meeting frequently to progress through identified issues, a wide-range of options and potential solutions. To ensure transparency and support a collaborative approach, the AESO is considering periodic check-ins with the wider industry on workgroup progress, which is intended to provide opportunities to gather the broader stakeholder community's input and understand their perspectives on issues, options and potential solutions. Targeted workgroup membership would ideally include balanced industry representation to ensure a wide spectrum of perspectives is included at this focused discussion level. More details will be shared on our proposed approach with the release of our Market Pathways Primer document the week of July 31, 2023.

Proposed phased approach and associated engagement timeline:

Background

Alberta’s electricity market structure faces new and increasing challenges to support a reliable and affordable electricity system. The AESO has noted key operational and reliability challenges occurring as a result of this transformation that test the sustainability of the existing market design. Building on the Net-Zero Pathways Report and the Reliability Requirements Roadmap – Market Pathways is the next stage in evaluating the sustainability of the existing market structure.