Peak Oil News - B.C. and Alberta need each other’s power

Alberta’s electricity market includes a host of buyers and sellers. At one end of the spectrum aresmall consumers like you and me who depend on electricity in our homes; on the other are huge industrial consumers mining the oil sands, operating pipelines and milling forest products.

On the supply side, generators range from wind farms east of Crowsnest Pass to huge coal-fired plants near Edmonton. The diversity of Alberta’s electricity supply has increased substantially. We now have more technology, fuels, locations, ownership, and maintenance diversity than in the past. Our system’s reliability, its cost structure and Alberta’s collective exposure to various risks are well-served by this diversity. Less known is that Alberta and British Columbia are buyers and sellers of each other’s power. We Albertans buy from B.C. during our peak hours. B.C. buys from Alberta during the night. This arrangement confers tremendous benefits on both provinces. There’s a misconception among some Albertans that the relationship between Alberta and B.C. is parasitic: we’re the host and they’re the parasite. According to this argument, our western neighbour is pulling a fast one by preying on a weakness in our market design.

PDF