Parts of this article (those related to Enmax's subsidiaries, after its purchase of Emera Maine and the creation of Versant Power in early 2020) need to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(May 2020)
Enmax Corporation (often styled as ENMAX) is a vertically integrated utility with operations across Alberta, Canada, and in Maine, U.S. Through its subsidiaries, ENMAX Power Corporation and Versant Power, ENMAX owns and operates transmission and distribution utilities that deliver electricity to customers in Calgary, Alberta, and northern and eastern Maine. Through ENMAX Energy Corporation, ENMAX owns and operates power generation facilities and offers electricity and natural gas products and services to residential, commercial and industrial customers across Alberta.
Enmax, headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is a private corporation and The City of Calgary is its sole shareholder.
According to their 2022 Financial Report, in 2022, ENMAX generated net earnings of $296 million and declared a dividend to The City of Calgary in the amount of $82 million.[1] ENMAX’s core operations are organized into three main business segments: ENMAX Power, Versant Power and ENMAX Energy. A Corporate segment provides financing and shared corporate services to the operating segments.
History
In 1904, The City of Calgary built its own electric plant when its contract with a private supplier ended.[2] The City of Calgary Electric System began operating on December 2, 1905.[3] In 1996, City Council approved a proposal to make The City of Calgary Electric System a wholly owned subsidiary Enmax Corporation commencing on January 1, 1998. This subsidiary and an affiliated retailer, "Enmax Energy", was incorporated on January 1, 1998. January 1, 2001, Enmax Energy entered the restructured, deregulated electric marketplace in Alberta.[Enmax 1]
Enmax Power regulated operations
ENMAX Power Corporation (EPC), owns and operates electricity transmission and distribution assets that serve the Calgary area.
It also delivers project execution for customer infrastructure in areas such as power infrastructure, light rail transit and commercial and residential development.
Enmax Power is regulated by the Alberta Utilities Commission. Covering 1,089 square kilometers in Calgary and surrounding areas, ENMAX Power’s system consists of approximately 335km of transmission wires and 8,629km of distribution lines in Calgary and surrounding areas,[4] with 40 high voltage and three lower voltage distribution substations [5] powering residences and businesses within Calgary city limits.
Enmax Energy Corporation
ENMAX Energy Corporation (EEC) is the generation and energy retail services arm of ENMAX that offers electricity, natural gas, distributed energy resource solutions and customer care services to customers throughout Alberta. Enmax Energy also carries out retail energy supply and related functions for the Calgary Regulated Rate Option (RRO).
The competitive retail business provides customers with either fixed or variable-priced electricity and natural gas and offers additional energy services. Natural gas retail contracts are backed by market transactions to provide supply certainty, margin stability and risk mitigation. Natural gas fuel requirements for the generation portfolio are balanced through the purchase and sale of natural gas in the Alberta market.
Current operating facilities include Cavalier Energy Centre, Crossfield Energy Centre, Calgary Energy Centre, and Shepard Energy Centre.[6] ENMAX Energy’s owned generation also includes 100 per cent ownership of the 81 MW Taber wind farm and 63 MW Kettles Hill wind farm, and a 50 per cent interest in the 73 MW McBride Lake wind farm, all located in southern Alberta.[7]
Additional Enmax subsidiaries
Enmax Energy provides the easymax® option for residential and small business customers. Easymax® is an electricity and gas energy plan for residential and small business customers.
Enmax Encompass Inc., a subsidiary of Enmax Corporation, provides billing and customer care services to residential and small commercial customers. Enmax Encompass is also contracted to perform customer service, water meter reading and billing services to The City of Calgary and other municipalities across the province.
Enmax Envision Inc., a subsidiary of Enmax Corporation, provided commercial high-speed data and internet services primarily in Calgary. Enmax sold its Envision subsidiary to Shaw Communications Inc. in April 2013 for $225 Million.[8]
ENMAX Corporation and Emera Inc. announced a definitive agreement on March 25, 2019 in which Emera agreed to sell to ENMAX its interest in Emera Maine, its regulated electric transmission and distribution company in Maine. The purchase completed March 25, 2020.[9] Emera Maine was renamed and rebranded Versant Power in May 2020.
Versant Power owns and operates electricity transmission and distribution assets that provide service to customers in the Maine Public District and Bangor Hydro District, covering six counties in Maine. Versant Power is regulated by the Maine Public Utilities Commission and the United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
District Energy Centre
The Calgary District Energy Centre began operations in March 2010, capable of providing heat for up to 10 million square feet of buildings. The facility incorporates high efficiency boilers fueled by natural gas. Customers are connected to the facility through an underground thermal distribution system, which occupies significantly less space than a traditional heating system.[Enmax 2]
ENMAX entered into a definitive agreement to sell District Energy Centre to Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure PLC in November 2020. The sale closed in early 2021.[10]
Shepard Energy Centre
Located on a 60-acre site east of Calgary, the Shepard Energy Centre is Alberta's largest natural gas-fueled power generating facility. Using combined-cycle technology, two natural gas-fueled turbines and one steam turbine provide more than 860 megawatts (MW) of electricity to the provincial grid - enough to meet almost half of Calgary's current needs. Shepard uses reclaimed water from the City of Calgary's Bonnybrook Wastewater Treatment Plant for its process requirements and emits less than half the carbon dioxide per MW of conventional coal plants.[6]
Capital Power owns a 50 per cent interest in the Shepard Energy Centre through a joint venture agreement with ENMAX Energy Corporation, the facility operator.
Electricity prices
The Regulated Rate Option (RRO)
The RRO is the default option if households and small businesses in Calgary do not choose an energy plan with a retail supplier.[11] Prior to 2006 the price of electricity with the RRO would fluctuate quarterly or yearly. In July 2006 the Province of Alberta introduced new provincial regulations that meant that the Regulated Rate Option (RRO) for Calgary would fluctuate monthly.[11]
"Prices change with the energy market, depending on changing weather, seasonal consumption demands and fuel costs such as natural gas prices. A new price for the RRO will be announced each month as these variations are incorporated in the price."
—Newswire 2007
Current and historical rates are available on enmax.com.[12]
Bonnybrook Energy Centre
The Bonnybrook Energy Centre is a planned natural gas-fired cogeneration facility that will be built in Calgary's southeast industrial zone. Once built, Bonnybrook will generate 165 MW of electricity, which is approximately half of downtown Calgary's energy requirements. This facility will reduce the amount of fresh water used by reusing industrial wastewater from the nearby Canada malting site and will play an integral role in heating office buildings in downtown Calgary. Bonnybrook will emit less than half of the carbon dioxide associated with conventional coal-fired facilities and will enhance the reliability of the region's power supply.[13]
The project was delayed in 2015 appears to have been cancelled.[14]
Generate Choice
In 2011, Enmax Energy launched its Generate Choice, a program which offers Albertans home-based renewable energy choices such as solar power and wind generation.[13] Response to the program has been poor: by August 2011, only 3,100 people even expressed interest in having a solar photo-voltaic (PV) system installed, and of those, only 172 agreed to have one installed.
This program is no longer available.
Financial performance
Enmax is a wholly owned subsidiary of The City of Calgary. Since inception in 1998, Enmax has returned approximately $1.3 billion in dividends to The City of Calgary.[15] Revenues increased from $3.1 billion in 2021 to $3.7 billion in 2022.[1] In 2022, the company generated net earnings of $296 million and declared a dividend in the amount of $82 million to its Shareholder, The City of Calgary.[1]
Public involvement
Enmax has been named one of Alberta's Top 50 employers[16] and one of Canada's Greenest Employers [17] by MediaCorp.
Controversy
In 2011, the CEO of Enmax, Gary Holden, resigned after controversial handling of travel expenses that violated the company's ethical guidelines.[18]
ATCO Ltd., operating as the ATCO Group, is a publicly-traded Canadian engineering, logistics and energy holding company based in Calgary, Alberta. ATCO's subsidiaries include electric utilities, natural gas production and distribution companies, and construction companies.
Emera Incorporated is a publicly traded Canadian multinational energy holding company based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Created in 1998 during the privatization of Nova Scotia Power, a provincial Crown corporation, Emera now invests in regulated electricity generation as well as transmission and distribution across North America and the Caribbean.
Fortis Inc. is a St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador-based international diversified electric utility holding company. It operates in Canada, the United States, Central America, and the Caribbean. In 2015, it earned CA$6.7 billion.
Puget Sound Energy (PSE) is an energy utility company based in the U.S. state of Washington that provides electrical power and natural gas to the Puget Sound region. The utility serves electricity to more than 1.1 million customers in Island, King, Kitsap, Kittitas, Pierce, Skagit, Thurston, and Whatcom counties, and provides natural gas to 750,000 customers in King, Kittitas, Lewis, Pierce, Snohomish and Thurston counties. The company's electric and natural gas service area spans 6,000 square miles (16,000 km2).
Xcel Energy Inc. is a U.S. regulated electric utility and natural gas delivery company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, serving more than 3.7 million electric customers and 2.1 million natural gas customers across parts of eight states. It consists of four operating subsidiaries: Northern States Power-Minnesota, Northern States Power-Wisconsin, Public Service Company of Colorado, and Southwestern Public Service Co.
The electricity sector in Canada has played a significant role in the economic and political life of the country since the late 19th century. The sector is organized along provincial and territorial lines. In a majority of provinces, large government-owned integrated public utilities play a leading role in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. Ontario and Alberta have created electricity markets in the last decade to increase investment and competition in this sector of the economy.
Constellation Energy Corporation is an American energy company headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. The company provides electric power, natural gas, and energy management services. It has approximately two million customers across the continental United States.
PNM Resources is an energy holding company based in New Mexico, in the United States. The acronym "PNM" by itself usually refers to the PNM Resources subsidiary Public Service Company of New Mexico.
Nova Scotia Power Inc. is a vertically integrated electric utility in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is privately owned by Emera and regulated by the provincial government via the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (NSUARB). Nova Scotia Power Inc provides electricity to 520,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in Nova Scotia.
SaskEnergy Incorporated is a Crown corporation of the Saskatchewan government, responsible for delivering and selling natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. The company owns 70,000 kilometres of distribution pipelines, 15,000 kilometres of transmission pipelines, and serves over 405,000 customers. It is governed by The SaskEnergy Act and is the designated subsidiary of Crown Investments Corporation of Saskatchewan.
FortisBC is a Canadian owned, British Columbia based regulated utility providing natural gas, and electricity. FortisBC has approximately 2,600 employees serving more than 1.2 million customers in 135 B.C. communities and 58 First Nations communities across 150 Traditional Territories.
Through the 1996 Electric Utilities Act the Alberta's deregulated electricity market began.
Madison Gas and Electric Company (MGE) is the primary subsidiary of MGE Energy, Inc.. As a regulated utility, it primarily serves the Madison, Wisconsin metropolitan area with electricity, gas and green energy options.
Capital Power is a North American independent power generation company based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It develops, acquires, owns and operates power generation facilities using a variety of energy sources.
There is a large array of stakeholders that provide services through electricity generation, transmission, distribution and marketing for industrial, commercial, public and residential customers in the United States. It also includes many public institutions that regulate the sector. In 1996, there were 3,195 electric utilities in the United States, of which fewer than 1,000 were engaged in power generation. This leaves a large number of mostly smaller utilities engaged only in power distribution. There were also 65 power marketers. Of all utilities, 2,020 were publicly owned, 932 were rural electric cooperatives, and 243 were investor-owned utilities. The electricity transmission network is controlled by Independent System Operators or Regional Transmission Organizations, which are not-for-profit organizations that are obliged to provide indiscriminate access to various suppliers to promote competition.
The Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) is the non-profit organization responsible for operating Alberta, Canada's power grid. AESO oversees the planning and operation of the Alberta Interconnected Electric System (AIES) in a "safe, reliable, and economical" manner. It is mandated by provincial legislation to act in the public interest and cannot own any transmission, distribution or generation assets.
Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. is a Canadian renewable energy and regulated utility conglomerate with assets across North America. Algonquin actively invests in hydroelectric, wind and solar power facilities, and utility businesses, through its three operating subsidiaries: Bermuda Electric Light Company, Liberty Power and Liberty Utilities.
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3.66 billion CAD (2022)
