The government of Alberta initiated the process of restructuring and deregulating the provincial electricity market in order to deliver the benefits of competition. We were retained by the Client to identify whether there existed (in 2001) any significant impediments to achieving an efficient, fair and competitive retail market

A report was prepared consisting of four main parts:

(1) Assessment of Alberta’s retail market structure: the analysis focused on assessing the extent to which the Alberta market matched a theoretical ‘perfectly competitive’ model in order to determine whether and to what extent competitive (i.e. efficient) outcomes could be expected under the existing structure.

(2) Investigation of retailer competitive behavior: this involved collecting first hand and secondary source information as to retail offerings, information available to customers, modes of disseminating rate information, etc.

(3) Examination of the underlying regulatory structure: identification of potential sources of non- and anti-competitive behavior that could create obstacles to efficient market outcomes.

(4) Recommendations: competitive behavior at the retail (and wholesale) level could be enhanced by a number of initiatives, including:

• revising regulatory monitoring procedures & mechanisms
• stimulating customer demand for competitive retail rate options
• adjusting or removing some price protections for target customer groups.