EDMONTON - Two power companies have applied to the National Energy Board for permission to export Canadian electricity to the United States.

Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason said Monday the applications underline why the provincial government approved “massively overbuilt transmission lines.”

Company officials dispute Mason’s contention, calling it “factually incorrect and grossly misleading.”

Mason said the government is not honest about its intentions to export electricity to the U.S. using transmission lines paid for by Albertans.

“This is a dramatic development and, if approved, would lead to the creation of a continental energy market,” Mason said. “It would be driven by demand, primarily in California.”

The effect, Mason said, would ultimately be an increase in the price Albertans pay for electricity.

Capital Power spokesman Martin Kennedy said Mason’s interpretation of the company’s application is “completely wrong in every respect.”

He said Capital Power already holds a licence to export 17,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity annually. That licence was first granted in 2002 and is up for renewal, which is why the company submitted an application Jan. 12.

In practice, the company actually exports 1,000 GWh, a fraction of its allotment. The vast majority of that electricity — 970 GWh — comes from Ontario hydroelectric generation. Roughly 11 GWH comes from Alberta.

“Claims of large-scale exports are factually incorrect,” Kennedy said. “It’s grossly misleading to say we have an aspiration or a desire to export power in those volumes.”

A spokesperson for Direct Energy Marketing could not be reached for comment.

The applications to the National Energy Board in mid-January, weeks before an expert panel recommend the province build two controversial high-voltage, north-south transmission lines.

Energy Minister Ted Morton said “the simple fact is that the United States will buy as much hydroelectric power as Canada can supply, and of course Ontario and Quebec have lots of that.

“But they’re not interested in coal or gas-fired electricity because they have as much coal and as much gas as we do,” Morton said.

“So by the time you throw in transportation there’s no advantage to the Americans to import coal-fired or gas-fired generation from Alberta.”

Energy Department spokesman Bart Johnson said electricity generation plants in the province have to serve Albertans first before they are allowed to export excess power. When they do export, they have to pay a tariff.

“There seems to be a misunderstanding that a deregulated market means there are no rules at all, that’s not the case,” Johnson said. “There are rules in place. This is not a free-for-all.”

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