Thank you, honourable members of the committee. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you to discuss Alberta's electricity interconnections or interties, as I will refer to them, and to provide context from an Alberta Electric System Operator point of view. I'll provide an overview of the Alberta Electric System Operator, and I'll discuss Alberta's interties, their role, and the value they provide to Alberta's electricity system. I'll also provide a view of the value of interties in the future.
The Alberta Electric System Operator, or AESO, is a non-profit, independent, statutory corporation charged with providing the safe, reliable, and economic operation of Alberta's interconnected electric system. We also facilitate the fair, efficient, and openly competitive market for electricity.
Alberta is one of the least-interconnected system operators in North America, with the third-largest peak demand for electricity among all provinces at around 11,500 megawatts. Our intertie capability is less than 15% of our peak demand. Our intertie with B.C. has approximately 1,000 megawatts of transfer capability and connects the Alberta grid with the B.C. Hydro grid. Our Saskatchewan intertie connects us to the SaskPower grid and is capable of transferring 150 megawatts, and the Montana intertie is capable of transferring about 300 megawatts.
Our neighbouring provinces each have crown corporations in charge of their power grids. B.C. Hydro and SaskPower are able to offer supply and withdraw electricity from Alberta's market through their respective interties. Both B.C. Hydro and SaskPower have implemented open-access tariffs designed to enable commercial entities to access their transmission systems, including their interties.
Interties can flow power in both directions. Over the past several years, exports from Alberta averaged about 1% of the power produced in Alberta, and imports averaged between 2% and 5%. While these percentages are low, the times when the flows occur are often important to reliability and to market operations. Interties can provide both reliability and market operational benefits. It's also important to note that the benefit of interties is mutual. Grid stability, emergency assistance, and added competition extends to parties on both sides of the intertie. From a reliability perspective, interties play a valuable role in emergency situations. They can assist with stabilizing frequency by allowing grid operators to access supply during emergencies and supply shortfalls.
During emergencies, Alberta, B.C., Saskatchewan, and Montana are able to receive or extend power to assist each other in providing the high level of reliability that consumers have come to expect. From a market operation perspective, interties also play a key role, and Alberta's interties provide market participants with the ability to access the Pacific northwest and Midwestern U.S. electricity markets. Similarly, B.C. Hydro and SaskPower can also provide electricity in and out of the Alberta market.
Looking forward to the future, Alberta's electricity landscape is evolving. As Alberta moves to phase out coal generation and meet the target of providing 30% of electricity from renewables by 2030, a fundamental change to grid operations, planning, and the market will occur. Interties can play a role in this transition.
First, renewable resources in Alberta are expected to be largely from wind and solar generation. By nature, both wind and solar generation are variable, non-dispatchable resources. As electricity supply and demand must be kept within very close boundaries, dispatchable resources must be available to balance the variability of wind and solar. Interties can provide this dispatch capability in large blocks in both directions, up or down, quickly and reliably. They can do this because they harness the dispatchability of the generators on the other side of the intertie. This does require close coordination between grid operators.
Second, renewable electricity portfolios have increased in many other jurisdictions. As predicted, the diversity of renewable resources over wide geographic areas can help balance out the overall changes in supply levels. For example, when wind is increasing in Alberta, it may be decreasing somewhere else. Interties can be used to help balance the overall variability. In fact, some jurisdictions are implementing programs to capture this diversity over wide areas.
Energy storage can help to manage the variability of wind and solar generation. One of the many storage solutions includes large hydro reservoirs. These have been used historically to balance variability and can be used in the future.
Fossil fuels—primarily natural gas—will provide the majority of the supply-and-demand balancing of renewables and baseload electricity in Alberta for years to come, but by using the diversity of variable renewable resources over a wide geography, and by accessing other renewable resources such as hydroelectricity and reservoirs, interties can facilitate overall lower greenhouse gas emissions. While interties are a vital component to a functioning grid, a careful balance must be struck to maintain reliability and facilitate a competitive market.
In conclusion, Alberta's interties will continue to play a key role in Alberta's electricity grid and its evolution. Careful planning and analysis must be undertaken to establish a plan that considers all aspects when determining if, when, and where new interties should move forward.
This concludes my opening statement. Thank you, honourable members of the committee, for your time.