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Canada: TransAlta breached rules in power price-fixing case

By  |  July 28, 2015

Calgary-based TransAlta Corporation manipulated power prices and engaged in insider trading when it shut down its coal-fired power plants during peak periods nearly five years ago, according to a decision handed down by the Alberta Utilities Commission on Monday.

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    The commission found that TransAlta could have deferred each of the outages to off-peak hours but chose instead to take them during peak or super-peak hours to maximize the benefit to its own portfolio of generating assets.

    “The commission is satisfied that TransAlta’s conduct in this regard was unquestionably deliberate and designed to move market prices away from a competitive market outcome by timing the outages at its coal-fired units … at times of high demand and/or constrained supply,” it said in a 217-page ruling.

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