On March 25,  the Alberta electric and gas utilities industry implemented a new market-wide software project spearheaded by the AUC, specifically our Regulatory Policy Division.

Participants in the Alberta retail and wholesale markets routinely send information back and forth to support the multi-billion-dollar markets. These participants include the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO), utility distribution system owners, and energy retailers that require reliable and consistent information exchange to produce accurate billing and settlement results. The transfer of information files is supported by managed file-transfer software that is used by all market participants. For the past year, staff of the AUC Regulatory Policy Division has worked with all market participants through an extensive consultative process to switch from a decade-old software program to new software called VLTrader. It is expected that the reliability of file transfer will be greatly improved resulting in a positive impact on all market participants.

More information on VLTrader, a product of Illinois-based CLEO Communications, can be found at http://www.cleo.com/products/vl_trader.php

The change will better facilitate transactions that take place every day in the retail natural gas and electricity markets. Over the course of year the value of these transactions reaches into the billions of dollars.

Questions on this initiative can be directed to Regulatory Policy Division Executive Director Fino Tiberi via email at fino.tiberi@auc.ab.ca or by telephone at 403-592-4410.