Alberta government announces new rules for power generators aimed at lowering utility bills

Alberta announced temporary measures on Monday that will affect how electricity producers sell to the power grid. Alberta's government is updating its electricity market rules with new temporary measures it says will help lower consumers' utility bills.

The Alberta Electric System Operator then dispatches the suppliers' electricity, starting with the lowest-priced offers and moving higher until the province's power needs for that hour are met. "Our government is committed to Alberta's unique and investor-driven energy-only market. However, the market's rules were designed 25 years ago, and some are no longer optimal for the system today," said Utilities Minister Nathan Neudorf in a news release.How 'economic withholding' is impacting Albertans' power bills and why even the premier is watching

That means, MacDonald said, that if the government sets the ceiling for economic withholding too low, power producers will feel the impact on their bottom line and may be more hesitant to invest in building new generating capacity. Neudorf announced the changes in a speech at the annual conference of the Independent Power Producers Society of Alberta in Banff on Monday.

The rules that govern the province's current system were designed at a time when the bulk of Alberta's power needs came from coal, and don't necessarily work for a system that is now driven by natural gas and renewables.

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