A new bill introduced in the Alberta legislature Wednesday would open up participation in the province’s power grid, allowing companies to self-supply unlimited amounts of power and sell excess amounts to the grid for consumer use.
If passed, Bill 86, the Electricity Statutes Amendment Act, would change existing laws and regulations that govern energy storage, sale, and transmission in Alberta.
Currently, self-supply and export is not allowed in the province except in four specific scenarios including at designated industrial sites and in the case of municipalities generating their own power.
“This would allow all companies that want to produce electricity for their own use, as well as sell it back to the marketplace, to participate,” Dale Nally, associate minister of natural gas and electricity, said at a news conference Wednesday.
“Industry is asking for this and we want to be able to provide this investor certainty in this space in the electricity marketplace,” Nally said, calling the current system “very restricted.”
The companies would also be able to draw from the province’s power grid when needed. The government said the bill would allow for all forms of electricity generation.
Bill 86 would encourage other forms of energy storage — the ability to keep excess electricity for later use — like battery storage systems which could help deal with the “intermittency” of renewable energy, decrease carbon emissions, and improve the reliability of the power grid, Nally said
Eventually, the proposed changes would lower prices for consumers, he said.
“Businesses, using energy storage, could purchase cheap electricity at night, sell it back into the marketplace during the day,” Nally said. “And it is this type of increased competition and increased choice that will bring down the cost of electricity in this province.”
Would incorporate new technologies
Under the bill, the new self-suppliers and sellers would have to meet public health and safety requirements on generators, as well as rules around participation in Alberta’s power pool.
These companies would have to pay an “appropriate tariff,” Nally said, that would ensure they couldn’t bypass transmission costs and drive up prices for consumers. The Alberta Electric System Operator would set that tariff.
Bill 86 further proposes establishing a framework to help modernize Alberta’s electricity distribution system. Nally said this would help the province accommodate new technologies that aren’t covered in existing legislation, like electric vehicle charging and residential solar power generation.
In a report released in February, the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) said emerging technologies are affecting the supply and demand of electricity, “creating new avenues for customers to potentially bypass utility service and the associated tariff changes.
“This not only creates competitive pressures where none existed before, but also raises questions about the future viability of electric utilities and the role of regulation during a period of significant industry transformation,” the report said.
The AUC warned that some consumers, large and small, were considering battery storage, “bringing the prospect of independence from the grid closer to reality.”
In an emailed statement, NDP energy critic Kathleen Ganley said the legislation does nothing to help utility bills in the short term.
“We support adding more energy storage to the grid and have been consulting through our Alberta’s Future project on ways we can achieve a net-zero grid by 2035 while creating 60,000 jobs,” she said. ” We will continue to consult with Albertans and will be closely watching the implementation of this bill to ensure Albertans are not faced with even higher utility bills under the UCP government.”
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
