Feb. 19, 2025

2025 Engagement Plan Overview | Feb. 25

On the first day of the Restructured Energy Market (REM) Design Finalization Session (Week 1), the AESO will present an overview of the 2025 engagement activities across the REM, Optimal Transmission Planning (OTP) and Tariff engagements.

• Click here to register

REM Design Finalization Sessions Week 1 | Feb. 25-28

The purpose of this engagement week is to continue to discuss and evolve how market access, and congestion will be managed under REM. It will explore changes in our policy landscape, specifically the movement to an optimally planned transmission planning framework, and the introduction of transmission reinforcement payments (TRP), and the implications that these changes have (and don’t have) on how stakeholders evaluate and provide input into the overall REM design.

Additional Topics | This week will also feature updates on:

• 2025 Engagement Plan (REM, OTP and Tariff)
• OTP engagement overview
• Tariff engagement overview with focus on TRP
  
• REM, OTP and Tariff interdependencies
• Click here for agenda

Jan. 29, 2025

Issue Prioritization Session | February 11, 2025

We will be holding an all-day in-person Issue Prioritization session to build on written feedback provided on the REM High-Level Design and work together to prioritize key focus areas and agendas for the upcoming Design Finalization Sessions (aka Design Sprints). New content will not be introduced, instead we will focus on reviewing, refining and aligning outstanding discussion topics to ensure our upcoming engagements address stakeholder priorities.

Those who participated in-person in the REM Design Sprints last year will receive a direct email with a link to register. If you have not yet been involved in those but would like to attend this session, please contact stakeholderrelations@aeso.ca and our team will do their best to accommodate.

Save These Dates!

The REM Design Finalization Sessions are scheduled as follows:

• Week 1 | February 24-28
• Week 2 | March 17-21
• Week 3 | April 7-11
• Week 4 | April 21-25

The agenda for Week 1 and exact days for each week will be shared soon.

December 13, 2024

Following the first six REM Design Sprints, we have released a high-level design document covering each element of the market design, incorporating what we heard and discussed with stakeholders. The written stakeholder feedback period will be open until Jan. 17, 2025.

Additional direction from the Minister of Affordability and Utilities associated with the REM Market Design was provided on Dec. 10, 2024. View the Direction Letter and News Release.

There is an updated report and data file from Energy+Environmental Economics (E3) that contains some additional information and clarifications of the analysis, as requested by stakeholders in Sprint 6. This includes a number of updates to the analysis on the impact of the most recent version of the market power mitigation framework, edits to clarify the concepts presented on a number of slides and new slides (15, 21, 28, 33, and 94).

Materials posted this week include:

• REM High-Level Design and associated Stakeholder Feedback Form
• Updated E3 Restructured Energy Market Preliminary Report and AESO REM Modelling Results (Instructions- if needed)
• Dec. 12, 2024 Information Session Presentation and Recording
• Minister Direction Letter
• Design Sprint 6 Summary

Stakeholder consultations will help us continue to progress details on the final market design and work towards the ISO rule development stage. Watch for more information in mid-January on upcoming engagement opportunities.

Thank you for your interest, participation and contributions throughout the REM engagements. Your commitment and dedication have been instrumental in getting us to where we are. We look forward to continuing to work with stakeholders in 2025 to achieve a market design that sets our industry partners, the AESO and all Albertans up for a successful energy framework for the future.

October 25, 2024

We have adjusted the REM Engagement Schedule to better reflect where we’re at in the iterative design process. Based on input from in-room participants, we have removed the second round of written feedback from the engagement schedule. Further discussions are needed to continue to progress the design details during Sprints 4 through 6 before we ask stakeholders to invest more time and energy into providing meaningful written feedback. The next written feedback cycle will follow Sprint 6.

We welcome and encourage your continued input throughout – if you have comments or questions, please share them during the upcoming Design Sprints or reach out directly to members of our Markets team.

Also note the following timeline adjustments:

• Sprint 5 - Tuesday, Nov. 5 to Thursday, Nov. 7
• Sprint 6 - Monday, Nov. 25 to Thursday, Nov. 28
• Inform Session - Thursday, Dec. 12

See full schedule here or below

August 16, 2024

We have added a number of items for stakeholder information and action.

• Register for the day-long virtual REM Design information session on Sept. 5, 2024
• Review agendas for REM Design Sprints
• Review the options papers for the following workstreams and use the comment matrix provided to submit your feedback by Sept. 6
  • Day-Ahead Market
  • Market Power Mitigation
  • Pricing and Reserve Market
  • Market Clearing
• Review the additional documents posted:
  • Comparison REM Starting Points with Current Marker Overview Chart
  • REM Co-optimization Information
  • Brattle Value of Lost Load: Preliminary Survey of Values for Alberta
• Review stakeholder feedback on Shorter Settlement
• Review stakeholder feedback on Intertie Participation
• Post questions or comment in our new Question Board by noon on Aug. 28

If you missed the registration for in-person participation in the REM design sprints, email stakeholderrelations@aeso.ca. The virtual registration links will be shared soon.

July 24, 2024

The AESO has published the Intent to Register and Agreement to Participate for the fall REM engagements. If you're planning to attend the engagements in-person or virtually, please fill out the Intent to Register form by August 6, 2024. The Agreement to Participate document applies if you're attending any REM engagements in 2024. Ensure you have read and understood it before you submit the Intent to Register form.

July 11, 2024

The Minister of Affordability and Utilities, Nathan Neudorf, has provided the AESO direction on government policy decisions on our path forward for the Restructured Energy Market (REM) design (Direction Letter).

With this clarity, we are pleased to share that the REM technical design will include the following workstreams:

We have adjusted our REM recommendation and design consultation in response to stakeholder feedback and policy decisions. We appreciate your patience and ongoing contributions as we move through this process together. Administrative Scarcity Pricing has been removed from the design, however new reserve products are still required for reliability and will be addressed under Energy and Reserve Pricing.

We will cover each of the workstreams in more detail at the July 18 Information Session and provide our revised engagement approach then.

Written consultation for Shorter Settlement continues and Intertie Participation will kick off shortly. Option papers for both will be shared on July 18 with comments due by August 9. Detailed information about the remaining workstreams will be released on August 16, with the first round of written feedback on those due September 6. Interested stakeholders will then have an opportunity to participate in a more comprehensive series of multi-day in-person sessions and written feedback cycles from September through the end of the year.

We remain committed to consultation that prioritizes open participation, transparency and adaptability and we look forward to working with you to ensure we build a market framework that delivers certainty and economic value for industry and Albertans into the future.

The Transmission Regulation decisions provided in the Minister letter give AESO and stakeholders a view into the changing policy that the REM will need to be designed within. The government supports continued progress of the technical REM design; however more clarity/decisions are needed to fully assess how AESO transmission planning, tariff and system access will be considered and impacted.

To register for the July 18 Information Session, click here.

June 19, 2024

While the AESO has limited details to share on the REM technical design and the engagement schedule at this time, we recognize that many parties are interested in updates to support work planning through the coming months.

The AESO continues to progress design work on the REM in parallel with government policy. We anticipate releasing content through July and August for review and written feedback and will initiate the more time-intensive engagement sessions in the second week of September. The earlier content will focus on Interties and Shorter Settlement, with all other market components to follow.

We remain committed to engaging stakeholders in a timely and comprehensive manner to develop Alberta’s market design and will share more details as they become available.

May 22, 2024

On Friday, May 17, 2024, AESO President and CEO Mike Law and Nicole LeBlanc, Vice President of Markets met with a select group of industry executives representing companies that have made significant investments in Alberta’s grid and/or represent the consumer voice of Albertans, to discuss two options for how energy market offers, offer mitigation and scarcity pricing (pricing options) could be treated within the Restructured Energy Market (REM), and a third REM alternative pricing option.

The three options are based on stakeholder feedback received at the April 2024 Executive Working Group meetings and through the industry-wide survey on the REM. Click Pricing and Mitigation Options and ORDC Technical Primer to view materials provided to meeting representatives.

The organizations that attended the meeting are Alberta Direct Connect Consumer Association, AltaLink, ATCO, Canadian Renewable Energy Association, Capital Power, EDF Renewables, Enfinite, ENMAX, EPCOR, FortisAlberta, Heartland Generation, Industrial Power Consumer Association of Alberta, Kineticor Energy, Maxim Power, Suncor Energy, TransAlta, and the Utilities Consumer Advocate. The Market Surveillance Administrator attended as an observer.

Through the course of the discussion, there was consensus amongst stakeholders that the current planned timelines for developing a detailed market design are very aggressive. While the stakeholders acknowledged that the design timelines are necessarily tight in order to achieve the government objective of a 2026 implementation, they indicated timelines will make it challenging to ensure that full analysis and thorough consultation on critical components of the REM is achieved.

Of the participating stakeholders that were willing to state a preference at the meeting, the REM alternative had the most support, however many participants were unwilling to commit without further detail or supported the REM structure.

For those stakeholders who did prefer the REM alternative, a major rationale was that it most closely aligns with the industry structure they elected to invest in, and they see that as a preferable path forward to investor certainty and easier implementation.

The AESO has shared this feedback with government to inform their policy making.

The AESO will continue to progress design work and share more information on the engagement and design in June. Please watch this page for more details over the coming weeks.

Purpose

The AESO hosted a series of engagement sessions with industry stakeholders to advance work on the Restructured Energy Market (REM) Design. Below are the topics covered during each. There was an in-person and virtual component for each.

Purpose

The AESO will provide an overview of the next iteration of the REM in advance of upcoming Design Sprints. It will include: a reminder of where we started, a summary of input from stakeholders, highlights of our progress in the design and an update on next steps and associated timelines.

Registration

Please click here (external link) to register for this event.

Materials

Presentation available under AESO Materials.

Purpose

The AESO is hosting a day-long virtual Information Session for stakeholders to prepare for the upcoming Restructured Energy Market (REM) design sprints. We will provide an overview of each workstream and give stakeholders an opportunity to ask questions. This information session will provide an opportunity to level-set on content throughout industry and build a common understanding on content before we start the sprint sessions. If you have any clarification questions on the REM options, require a further understanding of the concepts outlined in the options papers, or have any questions regarding the sprint sessions, we recommend you participate in this session.

Registration

Please click here (external link) to register for this event.

Materials

Presentation available under AESO Materials.

Purpose

The AESO will host a virtual information session from 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, July 18, 2024 to provide an update on the REM and share an overview of upcoming engagement opportunities and associated timelines.

Registration

Please click here to register for this event.

Materials

Presentation available under AESO Materials.

Since announcements made at IPPSA in March 2024, the industry has had the time to digest the Government of Alberta's Interim Market Power Mitigation and Supply Cushion Regulations, as well as the AESO’s Restructured Energy Market (REM) Recommendation Report. On April 22 and 23, 2024, the AESO brought the Market Pathways Executive Working Group (EWG) back together to:

• Build deeper understanding of the REM, its rationale, intent, and the potential impacts on Alberta’s energy market and industry;
• Discuss and begin to identify the key design questions most impactful and important to industry that need to be answered as we move forward with the REM;
• Understand which elements stakeholders support and which elements stakeholders have concerns with and why; and
• Review the AESO's high-level timeline and determine how to best engage on the technical market design and rules, in an accelerated timeline in accordance with the direction letter provided by the Minister.

After the EWG session in April the AESO sought feedback from EWG members and all market participants on the REM Recommendation Report through a survey. The AESO is reviewing survey results which will be shared with the Ministry of Affordability & Utilities in May. Details from the survey results will help to inform the engagement plan moving forward.