New Alberta bill allows hydrogen home heating, electricity market remodelling

Janet French · CBC

· Posted: Apr 10, 2025 8:53 PM EDT | Last Updated: 5 minutes ago

Alberta's authorities is looking to springiness the greenish airy to hydrogen arsenic a location and commercialized heating substance successful a determination it says volition boost request and trim emissions.

If passed, authorities tabled by Utilities Minister Nathan Neudorf volition let inferior companies to blend hydrogen into their proviso of earthy state — provided customers motion disconnected connected receiving the blended vigor source.

"Hydrogen presents an tremendous accidental and we privation to guarantee our state tin stay a planetary leader," Neudorf said astatine a legislature quality league Thursday.

Neudorf says information is apical of caput and the state volition enactment with regulators to acceptable an acceptable blending rate, arsenic hydrogen is easy ignitable and much explosive than methane.

The Energy and Utilities Statues Amendment Act also sets the signifier for Alberta to marque changes to its energy marketplace arsenic portion of a important strategy overhaul.

Market changes

Among those projected changes is empowering the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) to find who should wage for the costs of gathering caller transmission infrastructure oregon bolstering the capableness of the existing system.

"We've heard Albertans and their vexation with rising transmission costs connected their bills," Neudorf said.

He wants AESO to promote powerfulness producers to physique generators wherever lines already beryllium to negociate rising transmission costs.

It's a argumentation that critics accidental would disadvantage renewable vigor installations specified arsenic star and wind, galore of which request to beryllium built successful confederate Alberta, wherever determination is little transmission capacity.

AESO is successful the midst of a multi-year consultation play called the Restructured Energy Market (REM) process. 

The caller bill would alteration the AESO to bring successful a "day-ahead energy market," which requires companies to acceptable powerfulness prices a time successful beforehand to forestall outgo spikes.

But connected a website updating energy marketplace participants, AESO said past week that feedback has prompted them to wantonness immoderate archetypal plans for day-ahead pricing. Instead, the relation plans to support and grow day-ahead pricing for powerfulness sources that tin easy beryllium adjusted, specified arsenic earthy gas, atomic oregon hydroelectricity.

Neudorf says the changes, which should instrumentality effect successful 2027, ought to marque energy little costly and much reliable.

His unit handed retired quotations of enactment for the restructuring plans attributed to energy assemblage firm leaders.

But the feedback those aforesaid companies gave to the AESO earlier this twelvemonth during consultations was much critical, raising concerns astir affordability, reliability, and a plan that was excessively theoretical.

"The marketplace plan is overprotective, limits contention and introduces unhedgeable risks which yet volition marque it uninvestible, negatively impact energy reliability and affordability for Albertans successful the long-term," reads a submission to AESO from ATCO Renewables.

Neudorf said the state has made changes since past that instrumentality manufacture feedback into account.

Critics spot uncertain future

Jason Wang, elder energy expert astatine the Pembina Institute, says the evolving imaginable rules are creating uncertainty successful the energy market. That's a occupation due to the fact that the province's deregulated manufacture needs continual concern to guarantee suppliers are generating capable powerfulness for the province, helium said.

Wang said portion the authorities is readying for options that could beryllium disposable successful the future, specified arsenic c capture, utilization and storage, and hydrogen powerfulness plants, it isn't adapting to usage exertion disposable now, similar star and upwind power, vigor storage, provincial interties, and devices that let consumers to acquisition powerfulness erstwhile it's cheaper.

"Alberta needs to beryllium accelerating the usage of solutions that are already disposable to us," Wang said.

He's besides acrophobic to spot the Alberta Utilities Commission, the manufacture regulator, won't person to o.k. immoderate changes earlier they instrumentality effect to find if they're successful the nationalist interest.

The authorities has said a caller marketplace volition beryllium successful spot successful 2027.

However, NDP affordability and utilities professional Sharif Haji says the authorities has yet to amusement however the projected changes volition trim powerfulness prices that person ballooned during the past fewer years. 

Allowing vigor companies to blend hydrogen with earthy state is an overdue measurement that has nary wide timeline for implementation, Haji said.

ATCO has a hydrogen blending aviator task successful Fort Saskatchewan, wherever astir 2,100 customers person betwixt 0 and 5 per cent hydrogen successful their earthy gas. 

Should the measure pass, suppliers could blend up to 20 per cent of earthy state with hydrogen, should customers enactment this move, and lone those who are consuming the hydrogen would wage for the instrumentality needed to proviso it.

Skeptics of the method accidental the upstream emissions required to make hydrogen state enactment its emissions simplification credibility into question, and that hydrogen state has higher information and detonation risks.

In an email statement, ATCO spokesperson Kurt Kadatz said the measure is an "important archetypal step" to grow hydrogen's usage successful the vigor market. The institution is inactive analyzing however it could impact aboriginal investment, helium said.