zmason@medicinehatnews.com

Changes to the Alberta energy grid announced this summer will disproportionately affect renewable energy generation projects in the Medicine Hat area.

Details of the overhaul of the provincial energy grid, called the “Restructured Energy Market,” were revealed at the end of August.

Several aspects of the plan threaten to damage recent and future investments in renewables in southeast Alberta.

The first is the change to transmission policy. The province has previously adhered to a “zero-congestion transmission policy,” which required the government to invest in power lines to ensure electricity generated by new developments would make it to market. Under the new energy market structure, this policy has been scrapped, leaving developers on the hook for construc

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