It was my first real summer job. I had applied to be a data analyst at BC Hydro and the HR manager was calling with the good news. “Congratulations! You will be working in our power trading division, Powerex. Do you have any questions?”

“Yes,” I replied. “What exactly is power trading?”

I didn’t know it then, but I’d accidentally stumbled into what became a 15-year career in one of the most fascinating—yet perhaps least understood—aspects of Canada’s energy infrastructure.

My relationship with electricity to that point, like most normal people’s, was limited to using it and paying for it. I knew that power came from different sources of generation—hydro, nuclear, gas, etc.—but I had no idea that it could be traded.

I’d soon come to understand the intricate dance of buying and selling electricity across provincial and international borders. My career took me from BC Hydro to Wall Street and ultimately to Alberta. Along the way I learned how power was moved from one region to another, with a combination of transmission rights and power schedules. What I discovered was a system that, while highly sophisticated, remains strikingly unbalanced—favouring north-south connections with the United States while our east-west interprovincial connections remain underdeveloped.

At its core, power trading is like any other commodity trading, but with one key difference: electricity cannot easily be stored in large quantities. It must be generated and consumed almost simultaneously, creating a delicate balancing act between supply and demand that changes minute by minute. This means that unlike, say, oil or bananas, where trade tends to flow consistently from point A to point B, power flows often change direction hourly, responding dynamically to evolving system conditions across interconnected regions.

This is where trading becomes essential. By connecting different electricity systems, we can leverage complementary resources and demands across regions. Consider B.C.’s vast hydroelectric resources, which can generate abundant power on command. Meanwhile, Alberta might have excess wind power on particularly gusty days. Through interconnected grids, these complementary resources can be shared efficiently rather than wasted or duplicated. The larger the connected region, the greater the potential benefits.

It’s like how firefighters from Canada and Australia assist each other during their respective fire seasons. When it’s winter in Canada and our firefighters are available, they fly to Australia to help combat summer wildfires down under. When Australia’s fire season ends, their firefighters return the favour during our summer months. Power trading works on similar principles of resource sharing and mutual benefit. Yet despite the potential, our electricity system remains what energy researcher Pierre-Olivier Pineau has described as “balkanized”—provincially siloed systems with strong connections southward, but weak links between neighbouring provinces. Canada currently trades twice as much electricity across the........

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