What brought you here today?
Pick the question that fits. We will route you straight to the 4 resources that answer it best.
Pick a question above to reveal a curated 4-resource shortlist.
Three doors into Alberta energy
Whatever you need, it lives in one of these three hubs. Pick whichever matches your situation.
Energy guides
40 plain-English guides organised in 9 clusters — the AESO pool price, the RoLR, your bill, solar micro-generation, and how to switch retailer.
Utilities & distributors
13 wires-and-pipes companies that physically deliver your electricity and gas. ATCO Electric, ENMAX Power, EPCOR, FortisAlberta, ATCO Gas, Apex and 7 more.
Retailers (60+)
The competitive side of the market: who sells you the kWh and GJ contract. ENMAX Energy, ATCO Energy, Encor by EPCOR, Direct Energy, Just Energy and dozens more.
Regulated, or deregulated?
Alberta is the outlier. Flip the toggle to see how the Alberta market compares to the rest of Canada.
You choose your energy retailer. The rest of Canada cannot.
In Alberta you sign a contract with a private retailer for the commodity half of your bill — same way you pick a phone carrier. 60+ licensed retailers compete on rate, term length, contract type and customer service. The wires-and-pipes that physically deliver the energy to your home stay regulated and identical no matter who you pick.
AUC-approved tariffs. Identical whoever bills you. Transmission, distribution, riders + local access fee.
Set by your retailer. Shop, switch, lock in fixed for 1-5 years, or stay variable. This is the part you control.
One utility. One rate. Set by your regulator.
In BC, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and most of Atlantic Canada a single Crown corporation sells you the energy and delivers it. The provincial regulator sets the rate; you have no retailer to choose. Ontario has a competitive layer but most households stay on the regulated Ontario Energy Board price plan.
How Alberta got here
Three decades of policy change, told in 6 milestones. Why Alberta diverged from the rest of Canada and what each step means for households today.
Alberta passes the legal foundation to unbundle generation, transmission and distribution. Roadmap to a competitive market is set.
Natural gas retail is deregulated first. Albertans can sign with a gas marketer for the commodity portion of their bill.
The wholesale electricity market launches. Every kWh on the grid now clears through a competitive hourly auction.
Households can sign with a licensed electricity retailer. The Regulated Rate Option (RRO) is created as the default for non-choosers.
The default rate becomes a monthly-recalculated price tied to live wholesale forecasts. No more annual surprises, just monthly ones.
The RRO is rebranded RoLR with stricter contract-disclosure rules, auto-renewal protections and a fully-mature 60+ retailer market.
Alberta's energy bills started looking different in 1996, became fully competitive in 2001, and matured into today's 60-retailer market over the next two decades. The Crown-corporation model that the rest of Canada uses was deliberately replaced with a regulator-supervised marketplace, on the bet that consumer choice and competition would drive better outcomes than a single monopoly utility.
Or jump straight to what you came for
The six tasks Albertans search for most often. Each takes you to the exact page that answers it.
Side-by-side fixed and variable rates from licensed Alberta retailers.
The 4-step process to leave the RRO or change a fixed-rate contract.
Set up electricity and gas at a new Alberta address in under an hour.
Every line on your Alberta electricity bill, explained in plain English.
Identify the wires or pipes company that delivers to your address.
How micro-generation, export credits and retailer choice work for solar.
The 60-second mental model
Alberta splits the energy job between two companies. Get this once and the whole market clicks into place.
Fixed by your address, AUC-regulated, same tariff regardless of who bills you. They are the ones you call for an outage or gas leak.
You choose freely from 60+ licensed retailers. They set the per-kWh and per-GJ rate, send your bill and handle the account. Switch any time.
The Alberta Utilities Commission sets distribution tariffs. The Utilities Consumer Advocate represents you for free. The AESO runs the wholesale pool price behind it all.
So what does this actually mean for you?
Six concrete things that change because you are an Albertan energy consumer. Every household should know all six.
Any home, any rental, any business in Alberta can sign a contract with any of the 60+ licensed retailers. No territory restriction, no monopoly default.
The wires-and-pipes company is fixed by your address. ATCO Electric, ENMAX Power, EPCOR, FortisAlberta — whichever covers your area is the one you call for an outage or gas leak.
Never sign anything? You stay on the Rate of Last Resort (RoLR) for electricity and the Default Rate Tariff (DRT) for natural gas. Service never stops. You just pay the regulated default plus a small admin margin.
No work to the wires or pipes, no service interruption. 10 minutes online, completes in 1-2 billing cycles. Alberta gives you 10 business days to cancel a new contract without penalty.
The Utilities Consumer Advocate (UCA) represents you against retailers and distributors at zero cost. The AUC oversees the regulated half. You are not fighting these companies alone.
Retailers must publish every price line in your customer agreement. Hidden fees, surprise mid-term increases on a fixed-rate contract, or rollovers without notice are not allowed.
Most-read Alberta guides
A six-guide starter kit. Each is plain-English and takes 5 to 8 minutes to read.
Alberta is the only Canadian province with a fully deregulated retail electricity market. The wholesale market sets the pool price hour by hour; you pick a retailer.
RoLR is the default electricity rate Albertans land on if they have not signed a contract. It replaced the Regulated Rate Option in 2025 and uses a longer purchasing window to smooth out price spikes.
Switching in Alberta is paperwork-only. There is no service interruption, no truck roll, no meter swap — just a billing handover that takes effect on your next read.
An Alberta electricity bill has two halves: the energy charge (set by your retailer) and a delivery stack of regulated charges (set by the AUC and your municipality).
Alberta's Micro-Generation Regulation lets any home or business under 5 MW connect rooftop solar, export the surplus, and get paid for it on the same bill.
Your wires and pipes company is fixed by the new address. Your retailer is your choice. Most Albertans get this backwards and end up on the default rate by accident.
Retailers Albertans ask about most
A snapshot of the biggest names — full directory has 60+ retailers.
The six distributors that cover most of Alberta
Three electricity wires companies + three gas pipes companies serve the bulk of the province.
Who delivers in your part of Alberta?
A quick map of the major regions and the wires-and-pipes companies that serve each one. Your retailer choice does not change by region — but your distributor does.
Three things our energy team wishes every Albertan knew
Distilled from years of helping households shop the Alberta market.
The delivery half (distribution + transmission + riders + local access fee) is set by the AUC and is identical no matter which retailer you pick. A retailer cannot give you a cheaper delivery line. Compare offers on commodity + admin fee only.
The Rate of Last Resort is recalculated monthly from wholesale forecasts. Some months it is the cheapest thing in town; others it spikes well above any competitive offer. A 1 to 5 year fixed contract trades the chance of a great month for predictability across the term.
Many fixed-rate contracts auto-renew at month-by-month variable rates that can be far higher than your original locked-in price. Put a reminder in your phone 60 days before the term ends so you can re-shop or re-sign at a fresh fixed rate.
Frequently asked questions
See what Alberta retailers are quoting today
The comparator pulls live fixed and variable rates from licensed retailers across the province. Pick a plan that matches your consumption and lock it in — switching takes 10 minutes online, with no work to your wires or pipes.