02 Nov. 2023

Clean Electricity Regulations

AESO Submission for the Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) Draft Clean Electricity Regulation

The AESO appreciated the opportunity to comment on the current preliminary framework of the Clean Electricity Regulations (CER).

The AESO has a public interest mandate to ensure the safe, reliable, economic operation of the Alberta electricity system. The AESO’s core accountabilities include planning and managing operation of the grid 24 hours a day, ensuring Albertans have power when they need it; facilitating Alberta’s competitive electricity market; planning the future of the transmission system and its infrastructure; and ensuring generators and large power consumers can connect to the system in a safe and reliable manner.

Given its broad-based accountabilities, the AESO is uniquely positioned to assess the strength, stability, and reliability of Alberta’s power system through time. Our submission reflects this unique perspective and the shared interest of a safe, reliable, and economic operation of the Alberta electrical system, now and in the future.

Assessment

The AESO has published a revised 2023 Long-Term Outlook (LTO) Resource Adequacy Assessment modelling the proposed parameters of the draft Clean Electricity Regulations (CER).

The results of the assessment indicate that the CER creates significant resource adequacy risk when the CER comes into effect in 2035.

20 Dec 2022

The IESO recently released its Pathways to Decarbonization and 2022 Annual Planning Outlook.

The IESO's Pathways to Decarbonization report finds that Ontario can begin moving toward a decarbonized grid starting with a moratorium on new gas generation in 2027 as long as sufficient non-emitting supply is in place to meet growing electricity demand. By 2035, the system could be less reliant on the natural gas fleet, lowering emissions by 60 per cent below the IESO forecasts for that year.

The IESO's 2022 Annual Planning Outlook forecasts electricity demand will increase almost two per cent annually over the next two decades, driven by economic growth and electrification. The report reaffirms the IESO’s efforts to secure new supply and helps sets the stage for additional procurements that could integrate more non-emitting supply into the grid.