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    ISO rules

    As Alberta’s ISO, we have the authority to make ISO rules in accordance with Section 20 and Section 41.42 of the Electric Utilities Act.

    The ISO rules facilitate the safe, reliable and economic operation of the Alberta Interconnected Electric System to ensure that a reliable supply of electricity is available at a reasonable cost. They promote a fair, efficient and openly competitive wholesale market for electricity in Alberta.

    The Electric Utilities Act requires market participants to comply with the ISO rules. We comply with the ISO rules, and are also responsible for monitoring market participant compliance with ISO rules.

    Stakeholder engagement

    When necessary, we create new ISO rules, or amend or remove existing ISO rules. When developing ISO rule changes, we undertake a stakeholder engagement process following the requirements set out in Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) Rule 017, Procedures and Process for Development of ISO Rules and Filing of ISO Rules with the Alberta Utilities Commission. All new and amended ISO rules are filed with the AUC.

    See the current stakeholder engagement opportunities.

    The AESO has the following ongoing initiatives that stakeholders may want to consider:

    Alberta reliability standards program work plan
    Energy storage roadmap integration activities schedule
    Market-related initiatives schedule 

    AESO Engage Platform

    On September 22, 2022, the AESO launched AESO Engage, our new external engagement platform, for non-regulatory stakeholder engagements. Regulatory engagements, including ISO rules, reliability standards and tariff consultations, will remain on aeso.ca until 2023 when we will begin a phase II implementation of regulatory engagements onto the AESO Engage platform.

    Active ISO rule Stakeholder Engagements on AESO Engage:

    For further information, please contact rules_comments@aeso.ca. 

    Current ISO rules

    Individual ISO rules

    ‐ Ongoing stakeholder engagement

    ISO rules
    Part 100 - General
    Division 101 - Interpretation
    Division 103 - Administration
    Part 200 - Markets
    Division 201 - General
    Division 202 - Dispatching the Markets
    Division 203 - Energy Market
    Division 204 - Dispatch Down Service Market
    Division 205 - Ancillary Services Market
    Division 208 - Operational Constraints and Outage
    Part 300 - System Reliability and Operations
    Division 301 - General
    Division 302 - Transmission Constraint Management
    Division 303 - Interties
    Division 304 - Routine Operations
    Division 305 - Contingency Emergency
    Division 306 - Outages and Disturbances
    Part 400 - Transmission Planning
    Part 500 - Facilities
    Division 501 - General
    Division 502 - Technical Requirements
    Division 504 - Legal Owners of Transmission Facilities and Load Facilities
    Division 505 - Legal Owners of Generating Facilities
    Division 507 - Intertie Facilities
    Division 503 - Technical and Operating Requirements
    Section 9 Transmission
    Section 9

    Operating Policies and Procedures

    The AESO is transitioning Operating Policies and Procedures (OPPs) into ISO rules.

    OPP Title Effective  Retired
    600 Outage Planning, Commissioning and Testing    
    601 Transmission Outage Coordination   2020-12-09
    800 Emergency System Operations    
    804 Off-Nominal Frequency Load Shedding and Restoration 2008-11-13  2022-01-01
    806 Reliability Directives 2012-07-10  2021-05-06
    ISO rules