ABLawg

By: Nigel Bankes

PDF Version: Market power in the electricity sector prior to the implementation of a capacity market

Report commented on: Charles River Associates, Offer Behaviour Guidelines prior to the implementation of a capacity market, Report Prepared for the Market Surveillance Administrator, December 18, 2018

On September 27, 2018, Alberta’s Market Surveillance Administrator (MSA) provided notice that it was starting a process to determine if it needed to adopt guidelines for market participants in the electricity sector in Alberta during the period prior to the implementation of a capacity market. It will be recalled that the MSA had a set of Offer Behaviour Enforcement Guidelines (OBEG) that were in force until withdrawn by the MSA with the announced advent of a capacity market. For an earlier post referring to the development see here and for discussion of the transition to an energy plus capacity market see here.

To initiate this process the MSA retained Charles River Associates (CRA) to address three questions:

• Could there be a problem with offer behaviour that would need to be addressed during the transition period?
• If so, could the problem identified be addressed in whole, or in part, through MSA guidelines and what form could those guidelines take?
• If guidelines were made and market participants did not follow those guidelines what remedies should the MSA seek from the Alberta Utilities Commission (“Commission”) in an enforcement proceeding?

The MSA has now received that report and this post summarizes some of its key findings.

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By: Nigel Bankes

PDF Version: The Duty of a Regulated Pipeline to Provide Facilities

Case Commented On: National Energy Board, Letter Decision, 4 December 2018, Nipigon LNG Corporation (NLNG) Application pursuant to Section 12, Section 13, Section 59, Subsection 71(2), Subsection 71(3) and Part IV of the National Energy Board Act (NEB Act) in respect of TransCanada PipeLines Limited (TransCanada) and the TransCanada Mainline pipeline system (the TransCanada Mainline).

Public utility statutes typically require a public utility to provide service on a non-discriminatory basis to persons within its exclusive franchise area. This is also the common law duty of a common carrier. But what if a regulated utility does not have a franchise area (e.g. TransCanada PipeLines, see for example the comments of the National Energy Board in its TCPL Restructuring Decision RH-003-2011, at 38); and what if the utility is not a common carrier (e.g. a federally regulated natural gas pipeline)?

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