Almost a year after the provincial government released its Climate Leadership Plan, it tabled the Renewable Electricity Act (Act) and released details on its Renewable Electricity Program (REP).
Consistent with the Alberta Electric System Operator's (AESO) earlier indications and as discussed in previous posts, renewable electricity will include wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, and sustainable biomass projects. The REP is available to large scale renewable electricity generation (5 MW or greater total nominal capacity). Under the Act, the AESO will administer "a fair and competitive process" for REP proposals to incentivize renewable generation in the Alberta in order to meet the Province's "30 by '30" target. Following the competitive process, successful bidders will enter into a Renewable Electricity Support Agreement (RESA) with the AESO.
The RESA will be a twenty-year, index-adjusted fixed price contract, also known as a contract for differences (CFD). The fixed (or "strike") price of a RESA will be the price that the AESO accepts from a successful bidder and is expected to be the lowest price at which such bidder can build and operate its renewable energy project while obtaining an acceptable rate of return.
On November 10, 2016, the AESO released a draft Term Sheet for the purposes of stakeholder comments on the proposed commercial terms of the RESA. The deadline for stakeholder comments on the Term Sheet was December 9, 2016.
Our team prepared and submitted comments to the AESO on the Term Sheet. A copy of our submission can be found here.
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