Electrifying Alberta’s Grid

Alberta’s future depends on the successful restructuring of the province’s electricity system, not only to support the massive ramp-up of clean electricity required, but to ensure Albertans are not faced with soaring electricity costs that would threaten industry and business and citizen well-being.

Research shows clean electrification of the economy (substituting fossil fuels with increasingly clean, zero-carbon electricity) is the cheapest and most efficient way to reach net-zero GHG targets. Technology like electric vehicles, advancements in hydrogen and carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), for example, is rapidly transforming all sectors of the electricity industry, including Alberta’s electricity system.

1. Develop and openly share a comprehensive plan to transform Alberta’s electrical system into the future. The plan should:

1. Be informed by industry, stakeholders, energy transition research centres and the Alberta ElectricSystem Operator (AESO) working collaboratively to understand the potential pathways and implications to a net-zero grid of the future;
2. Be informed by analysis of the costs of implementing renewable energy;
3. Ensure Albertans have access to a reliable supply of power at affordable rates;
4. Ensure Alberta’s price of electricity enhances, not detracts from, our ability to compete globally and attract investment;
5. Support working with other provinces, the federal government, and the United States to grow, better integrate and optimize the electricity grid;
6. Support a phased approach that does not place rapid significant increases in rates on end-use customers;
7. Have the flexibility to mitigate potential adverse impacts and respond to changing market conditions;
8. Be transparent, engaging and informing Alberta businesses and industries at all stages of its development and implementation to ensure they can be prepared and operationally ready for change; and
9. Include a strategy to retrain employees working in the current energy industry to the renewables sector; and,
10. Engage with nuclear research agencies for including nuclear options within the Alberta power gridlines plan.