Power prices expected to spike
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The city s main power plant on the shore of the South Saskatchewan River is shown in this May 2018 file photo. The price for electricity in August is expected to skyrocket as heatwaves continue to dominate the 2021 summer months. NEWS FILE PHOTO
The price of electricity could move 20 per cent higher in August as sweltering heat continues, demand remains high across the province and prices appear headed to set an all-time annual record.
The City of Medicine Hat offers a set-rate for power, but most customers are on a floating commodity rate that is the average of other default prices in the province.
Green energy supply contracts signed by the Alberta New Democrat government are operating in the black, according to a new paper from the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy.
The Renewable Energy Program awarded three rounds of power supply contracts at set prices to wind power developers beginning in 2017.
Three projects in the first round have been in operation for about 18 months – including the Whitla Wind Farm near Bow Island – and researchers estimate those put power on the grid below the floating market price.
The discount could be $2 million per year in the province’s favour, say researchers Blake Shaffer and Sara Hastings-Simon of the U of C, and a net to the government as much as $28 million because they don’t collect carbon credit offsets as per the contract.