Cases Considered: Alberta (Market Surveillance Administrator) v. Enmax Energy Corporation 2008 ABQB 54
Regulation of the functioning of the market for electricity poses difficulties. The price for electricity in Alberta is determined through the mechanism of the Power Pool on an hourly basis. Generators bid the electricity they will have available for dispatch into the Power Pool during a given hour, and the Power Pool selects electricity in merit order (from the lowest price bid to the highest price bid) as required to meet demand in that hour. The price of electricity in each hour is the level of the highest bid of the last unit of electricity required to meet demand in that hour. Every in merit generator in that hour is then paid at that price, regardless of the level of the bid initially made by that generator.