Alberta Energy Market Report – Week of September 7-13, 2026

Week in one line: Alberta’s wholesale power price averaged $17.12/MWh for September 7 – 13 against $44.83/MWh the week before — down 62%, the cheapest week in these editions — and not one hour of the 168 cleared $100/MWh. Get Energy’s variable electricity rate still rose to 7.06¢/kWh because its calculation window ends September 8 and remains loaded with late-August pricing. Natural gas stays historically cheap.

Reporting week: September 7 – 13, 2026. Published September 14, 2026. Wholesale data from AESO; gas reference pricing from the Government of Alberta; retail rates from Get Energy’s live rate sheet.

Wholesale power: the week in numbers

Metric	Sep 7–13	Aug 31 – Sep 6	Change
Average pool price	$17.12/MWh	$44.83/MWh	−62%
Median hour	$18.66/MWh	$22.91/MWh	−19%
Highest hour	$47.38/MWh (Sep 10, HE22)	$874.93/MWh (Sep 1, HE20)	−95%
Lowest hour	$0.00/MWh	$0.00/MWh	—
Hours above $100/MWh	0	8	−8
Hours at or near zero	17	26	−9
Average Alberta internal load	9,701 MW	10,124 MW	−423 MW
Peak load	10,740 MW	11,267 MW	−527 MW

The 30-day rolling average for the period ending September 13 is $45.24/MWh, down from $48.26/MWh a week earlier. It is still nearly triple the weekly average because the expensive last week of August — three days averaging $164, $122 and $113/MWh — remains inside the 30-day window. It will drop out over the next fortnight.

What actually happened

A flat, cheap week with no events in it. Daily averages: $15.98 Monday, $11.27 Tuesday, $13.18 Wednesday, $13.27 Thursday, $18.76 Friday, $27.70 Saturday and $19.71 Sunday. Every day of the week came in under $28/MWh, something that has not happened in any week covered by these reports.

The most useful number is the high hour: $47.38/MWh, in hour ending 22 on Thursday September 10. For three straight weeks the peak hour had been in the $870 to $975 range during the evening ramp. This week the evening ramp barely registered — the daily high and the daily average sat within a few dollars of each other. Zero hours above $100/MWh, against eight last week and 42 across the last 30 days.

The floor tells the other half of the story. Seventeen hours settled at or near zero, nine fewer than last week, yet the average still fell by nearly two thirds. That combination — fewer giveaway hours and a much lower average — means the whole distribution compressed rather than the cheap tail getting cheaper. The median hour at $18.66/MWh was actually above the weekly average of $17.12, which happens when a block of very low hours pulls the mean under the middle of the range.

Demand kept easing into the shoulder season: average internal load down 423 MW to 9,701 MW, peak down to 10,740 MW. Mild weather, ample wind and thermal generation available at the same time is the least dramatic arrangement Alberta’s market can produce, and it is what happened.

Natural gas

The Government of Alberta’s natural gas reference price has run $2.46/GJ in January, $1.95 in February, $1.69 in March, $1.28 in April, $1.16 in May and $1.37 in June — still the most recent month published. The series remains well under the $2.71/GJ that closed 2025.

Alberta is at the end of injection season with heating load effectively nil. Cheap gas is the reason a week like this one is possible: gas-fired units set the marginal price in most hours, so when they are all available and fuel is inexpensive, prices sit in the teens. The hours that price above $100 are the ones where that cheap marginal unit is missing. For households the number that matters is the winter strip, not the September print.

Where retail rates sit

Product	Rate (Sep 14, 2026)	Week over week
Electricity — variable (30-day avg, calculated Sep 8)	7.06¢/kWh	+0.59¢
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 Sep 5, includes transaction fee)	$3.71/GJ	−$0.19
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 rose again, to 7.06¢/kWh, and the reason is the calculation date: it is a 30-day average calculated as of September 8, so it still contains the last week of August and none of this week. The lag runs to a few weeks in both directions. Last week variable sat 0.10¢ under the one-year fixed rate; this week it sits 0.49¢ above it. On the wholesale numbers above, the next two calculations should move the variable rate down.

Fixed electricity rates did not move. The gas 30-day discount moving average fell 19 cents to $3.71/GJ, now 6 cents under the $3.77/GJ one-year fixed gas rate. The default Rate of Last Resort remains 12.01 to 12.06¢/kWh — about 35% above our own three-year fixed rate — and does not move with the pool price at all.

Regulatory and market news

• Stakeholders question the AESO’s data-centre load assumptions. In feedback on the 2026 Long-Term Outlook Plan reported on September 9, several stakeholders told the AESO that its preliminary scenarios may not capture the scale, location and structure of prospective large loads, even though the plan already forecasts higher demand from data centres. The Long-Term Outlook shapes transmission planning, and transmission is a regulated line on every bill, so the assumptions that go into it matter to households well before any new load connects.
• Large-load connection queue still far larger than the connection cap. The AESO has received large-load connection requests representing more than 16,000 MW against an initial cap of 1,200 MW for new connections, and its engagement on connection requirements for transmission-connected data centres had stakeholder feedback due September 19, with a consolidated response to follow. For context, Alberta’s peak load this week was 10,740 MW.
• Restructured Energy Market: implementation update session on September 17. The AESO holds a stakeholder session on REM implementation and market readiness on September 17, and its REM ISO Rules engagement runs from this month through April 2027, with funding available for eligible participants. The ISO Rules were approved by regulation in March 2026; market-participant system work continues toward the 2027 soft launch. Nothing in the transition changes residential rates today.
• Rate of Last Resort. Unchanged at 12.01 to 12.06¢/kWh and fixed through December 31, 2026. Rates for the January 1, 2027 to December 31, 2028 term are set under the providers’ approved energy price setting plans and must be filed at least 30 days before January 1, 2027. That filing remains the item to watch this fall. The natural gas default, the Default Rate Tariff, continues to be approved monthly by the AUC and is separate from the electricity default.

What this means if your contract is up

Two things are true at once this week. Wholesale power was as cheap as it has been all season, and our variable rate went up. That is not a contradiction — it is the lag. The variable rate is a trailing 30-day average, so it reports late August while the market has moved on. Anyone reading the variable rate as a live price signal will consistently be a few weeks behind.

For the fixed-or-variable question, the arithmetic right now: variable at 7.06¢/kWh, one-year fixed at 6.57¢/kWh. Variable is above fixed today and is likely to fall back as the September hours enter the calculation, so the choice comes down to whether you want the next few weeks of movement or none of it. Fixed removes the question at a known number; variable pays the market with a delay, upward in September and, on these figures, downward in October. The default Rate of Last Resort at roughly double either is the position that is hard to justify.

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, August 31 – September 13, 2026. Retrieved September 14, 2026.
• Government of Alberta — Alberta natural gas reference price — monthly $/GJ series through June 2026. Retrieved September 14, 2026.
• AESO Engage — 2026 Long-Term Outlook Plan — scope and input assumptions consultation. Retrieved September 14, 2026.
• AESO Engage — connection requirements for transmission-connected data centres — engagement timeline, feedback due September 19, 2026. Retrieved September 14, 2026.
• AESO — stakeholder session: REM implementation and market readiness update, September 17, 2026. Retrieved September 14, 2026.
• Utilities Consumer Advocate — default rates — Rate of Last Resort 12.01–12.06¢/kWh to December 31, 2026; Default Rate Tariff approved monthly. Retrieved September 14, 2026.

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