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    Load Shed Service for imports

    Load Shed Service for imports (LSSi) is a transmission system reliability product developed as part of our efforts to fulfill our intertie restoration obligation as mandated by legislation. LSSi is provided by load customers that agree to be quickly taken offline following the sudden loss of imports coming across the interties.

    This load shedding allows for arrest and recovery from frequency decay and preserves system stability. LSSi is used to manage frequency risk so import intertie capability can be increased, allowing additional scheduled imports to access the Alberta market without compromising system reliability. 

    LSSi resources


    Prescribed Forms (ILSA 2022)

    LSSi procurement competition

    The AESO currently contracts 330 MW of LSSi from seven companies, with terms of service that commenced in January 2019 and will conclude at the end of 2021.

    The AESO remains committed to ensuring the energy and ancillary services markets continue to operate together to deliver a reliable, efficient, and cost-effective electricity system. In 2020 we conducted a two-stage competition to procure LSSi for the next service period that will commence in January 2022 and conclude at the end of 2024.

    The Request for Expressions of Interest (REOI) stage, which opened on September 17, 2020 and closed on October 7, 2020, assisted the AESO in identifying parties interested in participating in the competition. Information was provided on prospective facilities, and feedback was solicited on key provisions of the Import Load Shed Agreement.

    The Request for Proposals (RFP) stage opened on October 28, 2020 and proposals were accepted until December 10, 2020. Contracts were awarded in late Q1 2021.

    The RFP attracted strong interest and the AESO has contracted 366 MW of LSSi from seven service providers for the service period starting on January 1, 2022 and ending on December 31, 2024.

    The LSSi procurement was overseen by a Fairness Advisor at every stage to ensure the competition was administered in a fair and transparent manner, and adhered to all confidentiality requirements, policies and guidelines. To read the Fairness Advisor’s report for the 2020 LSSi procurement, please click here.

    2020 LSSi procurement documents


    Please direct any general comments or questions about LSSi to lssi@aeso.ca. 

    • 2018 LSSi procurement

      On May 1, 2018 the AESO posted a Request for Expressions of Interest (REOI) to procure LSSi for 2019 and subsequent years. The purpose of the REOI was to assist the AESO in identifying interested parties, and to provide key details related to the Request for Proposals (RFP) stage of the competition and the accompanying Import Load Shed Agreement. Additionally, the AESO hosted an LSSi information session on May 8, 2018 for interested parties.

      On June 1, 2018 the AESO opened the RFP stage for a contract term beginning January 2019 through to the end of 2021. The RFP attracted competitive interest and the AESO subsequently contracted 330 MW of LSSi from seven successful proponents.

      The LSSi procurement was overseen by a Fairness Advisor at every stage to ensure the competition was administered in a fair and transparent manner, and adhered to all confidentiality requirements, policies and guidelines. To read the Fairness Advisor’s report for the 2018 LSSi procurement, please click here.

      2018 LSSi procurement documents

    Load Shed Service for imports