Canadian Regulators
Carolyn Dahl Rees is Chair of the Alberta Utilities Commission.
CAMPUT 2021 brought Canadian regulators together with the theme Transition and Transaction.
Consumers are able to generate and store their own electricity, offering greater energy independence, plus the opportunity for more market engagement. The rise of the prosumer will affect the consumer and utility dynamic. What issues does the prosumer face? What are the implications for utilities? Who owns what? Who bears the risk? These are a few of the issues this panel examined and excerpted here.
Chair, Alberta Utilities Commission, Carolyn Dahl Rees: We've been looking at behind the meter in Alberta, on the commercial side, for many years. This topic looks at the distribution system and the evolution of distributed resources. It's a different angle on the evolution of what we've been dealing with, historically, in Alberta, but an evolution that is hitting the electricity sector worldwide.
We are focusing on the personal phenomenon. That's someone who can, as a consumer, also generate their own power, and in some cases, store raw power.
It led the Commission in 2018 to start the distribution system inquiry, which we refer to as the DSI. The report was finished in February and published.