Transmission
The Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) provides fair and open access to the Alberta Interconnected Electric System (AIES) for generation and distribution companies and large industrial consumers of electricity, and contracts with transmission facilities owners (TFOs) to acquire transmission services and provide customer access. The AESO is independent of any industry affiliations and owns no transmission assets.
In managing the AIES, the AESO develops operational and long-term transmission expansion plans, develops short- and long-term load forecasts of customer access requirements, forecasts operation and long-term system technical requirements to meet customer demand, and forecasts annual system costs and billing volumes for tariff design.
The costs of operating the transmission system are recovered through the AESO’s transmission tariffs, approved by the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC), and have been structured to achieve a fair allocation of costs among stakeholders and to support a competitive market.