Alberta, Canada.
Wholesale design: real-time energy-only power pool with a separate day-ahead operating-reserve exchange and contracted reliability services.
Energy in AESO trades in 2 layers: Alberta wholesale energy market and Operating Reserve market. Participation in Alberta wholesale energy market is mandatory. Scheduling and settlement, where the official sources state them, are in the table below.
| Layer | Scheduling | Settlement |
|---|---|---|
| Alberta wholesale energy market (mandatory) | real-time merit-order dispatch | uniform Alberta pool price under the ISO rules |
| Operating Reserve market | day-ahead procurement in defined on-peak, off-peak, AM super-peak, and PM super-peak blocks | active-reserve equilibrium price plus hourly pool price; standby reserve uses premium and activation-price components |
AESO has 8 ancillary-service products, across 7 families — regulation, fast frequency response, contingency reserve, replacement reserve, reactive power & voltage, black start & restoration and other services: Blackstart Service, Fast Frequency Response, Load Shed Service for Imports, Regulating Reserve, Spinning Reserve, Supplemental Reserve, Transmission Must-Run Service, Voltage Regulation. Response timing, direction and eligibility for each are in the cards below, as the official sources state them.
Facts below are stated as the official sources state them. A missing line means the source does not state that value — never that the value is zero.
Continuously balance short-term supply and demand and support frequency through automatic control.
Arrest and support recovery from rapid frequency decay following sudden loss of imports or internal generation.
As of 2026-08-02, AESO described Market-Based FFR as preparing to launch. Existing FFR delivery through LSSi and other contracted arrangements must not be represented as an already-operating co-optimized spot market.
Trip or curtail contracted load after loss of an intertie so Alberta can securely carry a higher import transfer capability.
Provide synchronized contingency reserve and immediate frequency support following an unexpected imbalance.
Provide contingency reserve from resources that need not already be synchronized.
Maintain system voltage through automatic voltage regulation and reactive-power capability.
Self-start without grid power and re-energize the transmission system during restoration.
Keep location-specific generation online at directed output when transmission capability is insufficient for local demand or reliability.
No central capacity market. AESO has 1 capacity/adequacy arrangement — Energy-only resource adequacy framework — and it works differently.
Alberta continued to operate an energy-only wholesale market. The prior capacity-market initiative was cancelled in 2019. Government approved the Restructured Energy Market ISO rules in March 2026, with implementation targeted to begin in mid-2027, but REM did not create an operating capacity market or a 2025 capacity auction.
Current as of · from the Global Electricity Market Catalogue v1.2.0 (compiled to , CC BY 4.0). Facts belong to the linked official authorities; verify the current rules before design or bidding decisions.
The markets index holds the full set. For what the grid demands of a battery here, see the grid-code ride-through atlas.