On November 23, 2016, the Government of Alberta approved the restructuring of Alberta's Energy Market from a fully deregulated regime to a hybrid system that will incorporate capacity payment mechanisms. This decision along with some key features of the Alberta Electric System Operator's (the AESO) Wholesale Electricity Market Transition Recommendation Report are detailed in our recent blog post.
Stakeholder Engagement
The AESO is designing and implementing an Alberta-specific capacity market. In order to leverage the experience and expertise of stakeholders in this process, the AESO is carrying out a Design Criteria & Engagement Process that is expected to run until mid to late 2018.
On January 12th and 16th, the AESO held consultation sessions with the purpose of "starting the capacity market technical design conversation" with stakeholders. A copy of the AESO's presentation at these consultation sessions can be found here.
Requesting Feedback
The AESO is requesting feedback on the content of the recent consultation sessions and specifically with respect to:
- key questions for capacity market design;
- roadmap and sequencing;
- the proposed two-stage process for developing the capacity market design;
- the proposed design criteria;
- the proposed starting assumptions; and
- the presentation itself and format for future engagement.
Comments are due by February 10, 2017. To aid in adequately capturing stakeholder comments, the AESO also released a feedback matrix for use in providing feedback on the topics listed above, as well as general comments for the AESO to consider.
Upcoming Education Session on Capacity Markets
The AESO intends to hold a capacity market education session early in February 2017. The education session is intended to provide information regarding capacity markets and will include speakers from independent experts (external to the AESO). Further details regarding the education session are expected in the coming weeks.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.