Welcome to this week's edition of IPPSA Intelligence! |
Upcoming IPPSA Event IPPSA33 Conference
Members Tickets Are Available
Non-Member Tickets Available November 6
March 14-16, 2027 Banff Springs Hotel | |
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Alberta Electric System Operator |
AESO adopts year-round Alberta Time (UTC-6) and advances several transmission projects Generation & Infrastructure The AESO approved the Lethbridge Transmission Development (P7087) under the Abbreviated Needs Approval Process and intends to file a Needs Identification Document for the Alberta-BC Intertie Restoration project (P7006) with the AUC on or after October 28. Two further projects — Southeast System Strength (P7101) and Airdrie Area Transmission Development (P7119) — are under assessment with a 2027 AUC filing target. The Edmonton CCS connection (P2656) has been cancelled. On the markets side, effective November 1, AESO moves permanently to UTC-6; market participants must review ETS submissions, prepare connected systems, and validate data post-transition. |
Alberta Utilities Commission |
AUC Rule 021 Settlement System Code Rules updated version takes effect November 1, 2026 Market & Regulation The AUC has issued an updated version of Rule 021: Settlement System Code Rules, effective November 1, 2026, governing load settlement processes, data exchange standards, and roles of load settlement agents, distributors, and meter data managers. The rule sets out an annual change cycle running January 1 through December 15, covering sub-working group formation, drafting, stakeholder consultation, and Commission approval. VLTrader remains the designated transaction transport mechanism. For market participants, the November 1 date aligns with the AESO's UTC-6 transition, making this a consequential operational cutover period. |
Alberta holds over 90% of Canada's planned AI data-centre capacity as other provinces restrict grid access Generation & Infrastructure Globe and Mail mapping using Aterio data shows Canada's planned data-centre footprint is nearly ten times current installed capacity, with Alberta accounting for more than 90% of that pipeline. The draw is straightforward: available land, energy infrastructure, and a regulatory environment that approves large loads faster than Ontario, Quebec, or BC, all of which are tightening grid access. For Alberta generators and investors, this signals a sustained, large-scale demand growth story — though the speed of load connection approvals and transmission adequacy will determine how much of that pipeline actually materialises. |
BC election parties split on AI data centres as Telus clusters and grid capacity concerns take centre stage Policy & Transition With BC's October 24 election approaching, the federal government announced backing for sovereign AI data centre clusters led by Telus in Vancouver and Kelowna. The three main parties take distinct positions: Conservatives are open to data centres with caveats on water; Greens want a moratorium pending stronger regulation; the NDP points to its Energy Statutes Amendment Act, which requires data centre proposals to compete for constrained electricity capacity alongside environmental and First Nations conditions. BC Hydro is still reviewing applications. The contrast with Alberta's faster-approval environment is implicit and will not be lost on investors evaluating where to place the next project. |
Opinion: Saskatchewan's 2,600 MW nuclear plan carries serious financial risk for SaskPower Nuclear Peter Prebble's opinion piece argues that Saskatchewan's plan to build 2,600 MW of nuclear capacity — two large reactors on the North Saskatchewan River and two SMRs near Estevan — risks replicating Ontario Hydro's fate after the Darlington overruns. Nuclear cost overruns have been chronic, and Prebble contends the financial exposure could effectively bankrupt SaskPower, with ratepayers carrying the debt for decades. While this is commentary rather than analysis, the parallels drawn to Ontario's experience are relevant context for any Alberta discussion about baseload investment risk and the comparative economics of nuclear versus other generation options. |
Hitachi Energy to build Canada's first pressboard factory in London, Ontario with $479M investment Generation & Infrastructure Hitachi Energy, with $50 million in combined federal and Ontario government support, will build a $479-million transformer insulation factory in London, Ontario — Canada's first pressboard manufacturing facility and Hitachi's first such plant in the Americas. The 21,000-square-metre site will supply pressboard used in transformer cooling, targeting demand from data centres, renewables, and industrial customers. Construction wraps by end of 2028, creating roughly 100 permanent skilled jobs. The investment builds on Hitachi's June 2026 Canduct acquisition. For Alberta, where transformer procurement timelines are already a constraint on generation and transmission projects, domestic pressboard supply matters. |
CER releases Canada's Energy Future 2026 and opens public survey through November 6 Policy & Transition The Canada Energy Regulator published Canada's Energy Future 2026 in March 2026, covering long-term outlooks for all energy commodities across every province and territory under scenario-based modelling. The CER has now opened a companion discussion paper and public survey, accessible online from October 8 through November 6, 2026. The outlooks are explicitly not predictions or policy recommendations, but they feed into federal and provincial planning conversations. Alberta stakeholders with views on demand growth, generation mix, or transmission should engage before the survey closes. |
GlobalData flags interprovincial transmission gaps as Canada's clean power build accelerates Generation & Infrastructure GlobalData projects Canada's total installed power capacity to grow at a 2.1% CAGR from 2025 to 2035, with non-hydro renewables rising from 20.6% to 31.4% of capacity as electricity demand grows at 1.7% annually, driven by electrification, EVs, and data centres. Onshore wind and utility-scale solar lead additions, supplemented by nuclear life extensions and SMRs. The structural problem is that Canada's electricity planning is provincial and transmission connects more readily to US regional grids than to other Canadian provinces. Federal Clean Economy Investment Tax Credits — 15% for clean electricity and interprovincial transmission, up to 30% for wind, solar, storage, and SMRs — provide financial incentive, but coordinated transmission build-out and streamlined permitting remain the critical gaps. |
Bruce Power MCR reaches halfway mark with two reactors refurbished and third ahead of schedule Nuclear Bruce Power's 13-year, $13-billion Major Component Replacement program is at its midpoint: two of six reactors scheduled for refurbishment are complete, and a third just replaced 480 calandria tubes 25 days faster than the previous unit. The full program targets roughly 7,000 MW of capacity by the 2030s and extends the fleet's operating life to 2064, with completion around 2033. Around 5,000 workers are on-site using remote robotics. The program's progress matters to Alberta's capacity planning discussions as a data point on what large-scale refurbishment timelines and cost discipline actually look like in practice. |
IPPSA's Mandate IPPSA's mission is to convene industry, providing information, resources, and a forum for knowledge sharing, and to create opportunities for dialogue, collaboration, and education. This newsletter is meant to inform members but not advocate for specific outcomes. We always appreciate your feedback at info@ippsa.com. |
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