Alberta Energy Market Report – Week of October 19-25, 2026

Week in one line: Alberta’s wholesale power price averaged $35.18/MWh for October 19–25, up 2% from $34.53/MWh the week before, but the week had a different shape: the median hour rose 68% to $24.21/MWh as near-zero hours fell from 34 to 4, and the high was $537.55/MWh on Monday, October 19. The 30-day average rose to $41.00/MWh. Get Energy’s variable electricity rate eased 0.26¢ to 5.69¢/kWh.

Reporting week: October 19–25, 2026. Published October 26, 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	Oct 19–25	Oct 12–18	Change
Average pool price	$35.18/MWh	$34.53/MWh	+2%
Median hour	$24.21/MWh	$14.45/MWh	+68%
Highest hour	$537.55/MWh (Oct 19, HE17)	$805.28/MWh (Oct 13, HE20)	−$267.73
Lowest hour	$0.02/MWh	$0.00/MWh	+$0.02
Hours above $100/MWh	10	7	+3
Hours at or near zero	4	34	−30
Average Alberta internal load	10,592 MW	10,398 MW	+194 MW
Peak load	11,474 MW	11,088 MW	+386 MW

The 30-day rolling average for the period ending October 25 is $41.00/MWh, up from $38.36/MWh a week earlier. The seven days that left the window (September 19–25) averaged roughly $24/MWh, well below this week’s $35.18, so the rolling figure rose by about $2.64 even though this week was barely different from the last.

What actually happened

Same average, different shape. The weekly average moved only 65 cents, but the week underneath it changed. Daily averages: $76.54 Monday, $40.30 Tuesday, $16.86 Wednesday, $49.07 Thursday, $9.64 Friday, $24.26 Saturday and $29.57 Sunday. Last week one evening of very high prices sat on top of a lot of near-free hours. This week the spikes were smaller and the cheap hours mostly disappeared.

Monday evening set the high. On October 19, hour ending 17 cleared at $537.55/MWh, followed by $192.05 in HE18 and $227.17 in HE19. Those three hours make up about 16% of the week’s summed hourly prices; the other 165 hours averaged about $30/MWh. The remaining seven hours above $100/MWh were spread across the weekday mornings and evenings: Monday HE13 ($115.96), Tuesday HE7 ($113.10), HE9 ($100.19) and HE18 ($133.49), and Thursday HE9 ($214.86), HE14 ($142.06) and HE18 ($115.37). None came close to last week’s $805.28 peak.

The floor lifted. Only 4 hours settled at or near zero, down from 34, and all four were on Friday afternoon, October 23. With fewer free hours to pull it down, the median rose 68% to $24.21/MWh. The typical hour this week cost more than last week’s typical hour, even though the average was flat. Near-zero hours in Alberta generally track wind output; we did not pull wind data to confirm that for this week.

The highest load in at least 30 days, at a low price. Average load rose 194 MW to 10,592 MW, and peak load reached 11,474 MW on Friday, October 23, in hour ending 12 — when the pool price was $5.76/MWh. Monday’s expensive evening hours ran at roughly 10,730 to 10,780 MW. For the third week in a row the costliest hours did not coincide with the highest demand, which points to supply conditions rather than load.

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.

For a more current read, TC Energy’s October power market update (indicative as of October 5) shows AECO gas at $1.77/GJ for the balance of October and $1.84/GJ for November, with calendar 2027 at $2.06/GJ. Last year’s reference price climbed from $0.95/GJ in October to $2.04 in November and $2.71 in December, so the winter months are the ones that weigh most on a household gas bill.

Where retail rates sit

Product	Rate (Oct 26, 2026)	Week over week
Electricity — variable (30-day avg, calculated Oct 19)	5.69¢/kWh	−0.26¢
Electricity — 1-year fixed	6.57¢/kWh	Unchanged
Electricity — 2-year fixed	7.97¢/kWh	Unchanged
Electricity — 3-year fixed	8.87¢/kWh	Unchanged
Natural gas — 30-day discount moving average (calculated Oct 16, includes transaction fee)	$3.55/GJ	+$0.58
Natural gas — 1-year fixed	$3.77/GJ	Unchanged
Rate of Last Resort (default)	12.01–12.06¢/kWh	Fixed to Dec 31, 2026

The variable electricity rate eased 0.26¢ to 5.69¢/kWh. The October 19 calculation picks up most of last week’s cheap days, which partly offset the October 7 and October 13 spikes still in its window. It does not yet include this week. We will report the next calculation as published rather than estimate it.

Fixed electricity rates did not move. Variable sits 0.88¢ below the one-year fixed rate of 6.57¢/kWh, up from a 0.62¢ gap last week. The gas 30-day discount moving average rose 58 cents to $3.55/GJ, its biggest weekly move since the 93-cent drop reported on October 5, and now sits 22 cents below the $3.77/GJ one-year fixed gas rate, down from an 80-cent gap. The default Rate of Last Resort remains 12.01 to 12.06¢/kWh — about 35% above our three-year fixed rate and more than double our current variable rate — and it does not move with the pool price.

Forward market and load growth

TC Energy has now published its October Alberta power market update, with forward prices indicative as of October 5, 2026: 2027 flat at $44.04/MWh, 2028 at $61.47/MWh and 2029 at $77.97/MWh. Against TC Energy’s September 1 table, 2027 is up $3.38, 2028 up $5.66 and 2029 up $6.51. The same table puts November at $38.75/MWh and the balance of 2026 at $42.13/MWh. These figures line up with the Dynasty Power table (October 8) we quoted last week.

The same update reports that September 2026 settled at $29.40/MWh, down 59.8% from September 2025 ($73.05) and 35.7% from August ($45.71). Forward prices are what term power could be bought for on the date shown, not a forecast. The 2027 price sits a few dollars above the last 30 days of pool prices ($41.00/MWh); 2028 and 2029 sit well above it, in the years large new load is expected to begin connecting.

On that load: more than 40 data centre proposals have applied to the AESO to connect, representing potentially 26 gigawatts of demand, according to the Calgary Herald on October 24. Alberta’s record peak load is 12,785 MW, so the queue is roughly twice the size of today’s entire peak. Applications are not approvals, and many will not be built. Separately, Sturgeon County issued a development permit on October 20 for foundation pilings at the data centre site tied to Meta’s announced campus; it takes effect November 10.

Regulatory and market news

• AUC releases the first distribution system plans. On October 20 the Alberta Utilities Commission published the first distribution system plans from FortisAlberta and the distribution businesses of ATCO Electric, ENMAX and EPCOR, filed under Bulletin 2026-02. The AUC will hold a virtual stakeholder meeting on November 17 (registration closes November 10) and expects to set a formal rule in 2027. The plans do not change any rate on their own; distribution charges are set through separate AUC rate proceedings and are the same whichever retailer you use.
• 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; the providers said the valuation date will be on or before December 2, 2026, and the rate can be adjusted by no more than 10 per cent after the first two-year term.
• Alberta Time on November 1. Alberta Time takes effect at 2:00 a.m. on November 1, 2026. Clocks do not fall back, so there will be no repeated hour in pool-price data this fall.
• Winter Rules extend to natural gas on November 1. Home natural gas service cannot be disconnected from November 1 to April 14, according to the Utilities Consumer Advocate; residential electricity has been covered since October 15. The rules do not pause the bill.
• Alberta Energy Rebate. Applications for the province’s one-time $100 Alberta Energy Rebate close October 31, according to the Government of Alberta.

What this means if your contract is up

The variable rate moved down 0.26¢ to 5.69¢/kWh, and the gap to the one-year fixed rate of 6.57¢/kWh widened to 0.88¢. The two-year fixed is 7.97¢/kWh and the three-year 8.87¢/kWh. The wholesale market this week was steady on average but had fewer cheap hours, and the 30-day pool average rose to $41.00/MWh, so the next variable calculations will reflect that.

The trade-off is unchanged. Variable has been the lower rate and follows the market with a lag, up and down. Fixed costs more today and does not move for its term. On gas, the floating rate at $3.55/GJ is now just 22 cents below the $3.77/GJ fixed rate, and gas prices have historically climbed from October into December.

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, September 19 – October 25, 2026. Retrieved October 26, 2026.
• Government of Alberta — Alberta natural gas reference price — monthly $/GJ series through August 2026. Retrieved October 26, 2026.
• TC Energy — Power Market Update, October 2026 (forward prices and AECO gas indicative as of October 5, 2026; September 2026 market recap). Retrieved October 26, 2026.
• Calgary Herald — Varcoe: Massive new Alberta data centre proposal takes form (October 24, 2026). Retrieved October 26, 2026.
• Sturgeon County — Development permit approval notice DP-26-0293 (October 20, 2026). Retrieved October 26, 2026.
• Alberta Utilities Commission — Distribution system plans released and future process (October 20, 2026). Retrieved October 26, 2026.
• Utilities Consumer Advocate — default rates — Rate of Last Resort 12.01–12.06¢/kWh to December 31, 2026; AUC Decision 29204-D02-2025 (2027–2028 filing, valuation date and 10 per cent limit). Retrieved October 26, 2026.
• Government of Alberta — Alberta’s new time system; Utilities Consumer Advocate — Winter Rules; Government of Alberta — Alberta Energy Rebate. Retrieved October 26, 2026.

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