Alberta Energy Market Report – Week of November 2-8, 2026

Week in one line: Alberta’s wholesale power price averaged $16.45/MWh for November 2–8, down 81% from $85.88/MWh the week before and the lowest weekly average since this report began in August. Strong wind pushed 40 hours to zero or near zero, including 21 of Sunday’s 24, and no hour reached $100. The 30-day average fell to $42.05/MWh. Get Energy’s variable electricity rate, which lags the market, rose 1.39¢ to 7.38¢/kWh as it picked up the October 29 spike; fixed rates were unchanged.

Reporting week: November 2–8, 2026. Published November 9, 2026. Wholesale data from AESO; gas reference pricing from the Government of Alberta; forward prices from TC Energy; retail rates from Get Energy’s live rate sheet.

Wholesale power: the week in numbers

Metric	Nov 2–8	Oct 26 – Nov 1	Change
Average pool price	$16.45/MWh	$85.88/MWh	−81%
Median hour	$12.63/MWh	$37.91/MWh	−67%
Highest hour	$90.87/MWh (Nov 4, HE9)	$837.10/MWh (Oct 29, HE18)	−$746.23
Lowest hour	$0.00/MWh	$16.53/MWh	−$16.53
Hours above $100/MWh	0	20	−20
Hours at or near zero	40	0	+40
Average Alberta internal load	10,803 MW	10,897 MW	−94 MW
Peak load	11,492 MW	11,627 MW	−135 MW

The 30-day rolling average for the period ending November 8 is $42.05/MWh, down from $52.56/MWh a week earlier. The seven days that left the window (October 3–9, including the October 7 spike) averaged roughly $61/MWh, against this week’s $16.45, so the rolling figure fell by $10.51. October 29 is still inside the window.

What actually happened

The cheapest week since this report began, one week after the most expensive. The $16.45/MWh average is the lowest of any Monday-to-Sunday week since mid-August, just under the $17.12 of September 7–13. It also had the most hours at or near zero (40, counting hours at $0.10/MWh or less), ahead of 34 in the week of October 12–18. Added up hour by hour, the whole week cost about 40% of what Thursday, October 29 cost on its own.

The week got cheaper as it went. Daily averages: $29.17 Monday, $20.14 Tuesday, $33.38 Wednesday, $10.31 Thursday, $6.47 Friday, $15.35 Saturday and $0.36 Sunday. No hour reached $100. The highest was $90.87/MWh on Wednesday morning in hour ending 9, and only nine hours all week settled above $40. Monday to Wednesday had no near-zero hours; Thursday had 3, Friday 6, Saturday 10 (HE1–10) and Sunday 21 of 24, with the day’s highest price just $4.57/MWh in HE18.

This was a wind week. Pipeline Online, citing AESO minute-by-minute data, reported wind output of 4,508 MW at 9:59 p.m. on Friday, November 6 — 79.3% of installed capacity and 39.6% of all generation in Alberta at that moment — with gas generation turned down to 6,588 MW and the province exporting 402 MW. The same report counted five hours at $0/MWh on Friday. Last week’s spike was the reverse case: near-zero wind at the evening peak. We did not pull wind data for the other days of this week.

Demand did not drive it. Average load eased only 94 MW to 10,803 MW, and peak load reached 11,492 MW on Thursday, November 5, in hour ending 19 — at $13.90/MWh. Sunday evening, November 8, ran above 11,000 MW for five hours with prices between $0 and $4.57. High load and low prices came together because wind supplied so much of it.

Natural gas

The Government of Alberta’s natural gas reference price series has not been updated since last week; August, at $1.23/GJ, is still the most recent month published. The 2026 series reads $2.46/GJ in January, $1.95 in February, $1.69 in March, $1.28 in April, $1.16 in May, $1.37 in June, $1.35 in July and $1.23 in August.

TC Energy’s October power market update (indicative as of October 5) showed AECO gas at $1.84/GJ for November, with calendar 2027 at $2.06/GJ; TC Energy had not posted a November update as of this morning. Last year’s reference price climbed from $0.95/GJ in October to $2.04 in November and $2.71 in December, and the winter months weigh most on a household gas bill. Winter Rules are in effect: from November 1 to April 14, home natural gas service cannot be disconnected, according to the Utilities Consumer Advocate.

Where retail rates sit

Product	Rate (Nov 9, 2026)	Week over week
Electricity — variable (30-day avg, calculated Nov 2)	7.38¢/kWh	+1.39¢
Electricity — 2-year fixed	7.27¢/kWh	Unchanged
Electricity — 3-year fixed	8.87¢/kWh	Unchanged
Electricity — 5-year fixed	9.87¢/kWh	Unchanged
Natural gas — 30-day discount moving average (calculated Oct 27, includes transaction fee)	$3.61/GJ	−$0.09
Natural gas — fixed (guaranteed to April 2028)	$3.57/GJ	Unchanged
Rate of Last Resort (default)	12.01–12.06¢/kWh	Fixed to Dec 31, 2026

The variable rate caught up with last week. Get Energy’s variable electricity rate rose 1.39¢ to 7.38¢/kWh in its November 2 calculation, the largest weekly increase since we began tracking it in this report. That calculation now includes the October 29 spike; it does not include this week’s low prices. Variable follows the market with a lag, and this week is a clear example: the cheapest wholesale week in the series arrived alongside the highest variable rate in it. Variable now sits 0.11¢ above the two-year fixed rate of 7.27¢/kWh, after sitting 1.28¢ below it last week. We will report the next calculations as they are published rather than estimate them.

The fixed lineup is unchanged: 7.27¢/kWh for two years, 8.87¢/kWh for three and 9.87¢/kWh for five. Rates shown are Get Energy’s Advantage rates from our live rate sheet. On gas, the 30-day discount moving average eased 9 cents to $3.61/GJ, 4 cents above the fixed rate of $3.57/GJ. The default Rate of Last Resort remains 12.01 to 12.06¢/kWh — about 65% above our two-year fixed rate, about 35% above our three-year rate and about 63% above our current variable rate — and it does not move with the pool price.

Forward market and load growth

TC Energy had not published a November Alberta power market update as of November 9, so the latest public forward table is still its October update, indicative as of October 5, 2026: 2027 flat at $44.04/MWh, 2028 at $61.47/MWh and 2029 at $77.97/MWh, with November 2026 at $38.75/MWh. The last two weeks show why a forward is not a forecast: one week averaged more than double that November figure, the next less than half of it.

On supply, TransAlta gave the AESO notice on November 2 that Battle River Units 4 and 5 near Forestburg — natural gas units totalling 550 MW — will be mothballed from March 1, 2027, for up to January 1, 2029, and extended the mothball of Sundance 6 to as late as April 1, 2029. Both Battle River units remain available through this winter, and TransAlta says the units can return if market conditions improve or a contract is signed. A mothballed unit is parked, not retired. On load, the data-centre pipeline we have covered in recent editions continues to grow; our Friday Alberta Energy Watch covered Calgary’s proposed pause on large data-centre land-use applications and the Boreal Technology Hub proposal near Keephills, whose first phase holds a 230 MW allocation from the AESO’s large-load program.

Regulatory and market news

• Restructured Energy Market rules, Window 2. The AESO released its Window 2 REM ISO rule revisions on November 6. The stakeholder session is November 17 and written feedback is due December 4, with AESO responses expected by January 29, 2027. A REM implementation and market readiness update follows on November 19. The AESO is targeting ministerial approval of the amended rules by the second quarter of 2027.
• Rate of Last Resort, next term. Unchanged at 12.01 to 12.06¢/kWh through December 31, 2026. Under AUC Decision 29204-D02-2025, the 2027–2028 rates must be filed at least 30 days before January 1, 2027, with a valuation date on or before December 2, 2026, and can be adjusted by no more than 10 per cent.
• Generation mothballing. TransAlta’s Battle River 4 and 5 notice (above) was disclosed with its third-quarter results on November 3.
• Distribution system plans. Registration for the AUC’s November 17 virtual meeting on the first distribution system plans from Alberta’s four large wire utilities closes November 10. The plans do not change any rate on their own.

What this means if your contract is up

The wholesale market went from its most expensive week since this report began to its cheapest, one week apart, mostly on wind. The 30-day pool average is now $42.05/MWh.

The variable rate moved the other way this week, up 1.39¢ to 7.38¢/kWh, because its latest calculation picked up the October 29 spike and not yet this week’s low prices. That lag works in both directions, so a single week’s variable rate says little about the next one. Variable is now slightly above the two-year fixed rate of 7.27¢/kWh; fixed rates do not move for their term. The trade-off is the same as always: variable moves with the market and has often been the lower rate; fixed holds still for two, three or five years.

On gas, the floating 30-day average ($3.61/GJ) and the fixed rate ($3.57/GJ, guaranteed to April 2028) are within 4 cents of each other heading into winter. The default Rate of Last Resort at 12.01 to 12.06¢/kWh sits above every other option in the table, and its 2027–2028 rates will be set by early December.

We publish this report every Monday. The reasoning behind the fixed-or-variable decision is set out in fixed vs variable electricity rates in Alberta, and current rates are always on our rates page.

Sources

• AESO market and system reporting — hourly pool price and Alberta internal load, October 3 – November 8, 2026. Retrieved November 9, 2026.
• Pipeline Online — “High Alberta wind output on Friday again results in a pool price less than a Timbit” (November 7, 2026; wind output, gas output and exports on November 6, citing AESO data). Retrieved November 9, 2026.
• Government of Alberta — Alberta natural gas reference price — monthly $/GJ series through August 2026. Retrieved November 9, 2026.
• TC Energy — Power Market Update, October 2026 (forward prices and AECO gas indicative as of October 5, 2026; no November update posted as of November 9). Retrieved November 9, 2026.
• TransAlta — “TransAlta Reports Strong Third Quarter Results and Reaffirms Guidance” (November 3, 2026; mothballing of Battle River Units 4 and 5 and Sundance 6). Retrieved November 9, 2026.
• AESO Engage — REM ISO Rules engagement schedule (Window 2 released November 6, 2026). Retrieved November 9, 2026.
• Utilities Consumer Advocate — default rates — Rate of Last Resort 12.01–12.06¢/kWh to December 31, 2026; AUC Decision 29204-D02-2025; UCA — Winter Rules. Retrieved November 9, 2026.
• Alberta Utilities Commission — Distribution system plans released and future process (October 20, 2026). Retrieved November 9, 2026.
• Get Energy rates — live rate sheet, Advantage rates. Retrieved November 9, 2026.

Get Energy is a competitive retailer in Alberta, a tradename of Utility Network & Partners Inc.