Electricity and Natural Gas Retailers in Red Deer
Despite its relative small size, the city of Red Deer has a diversity of energy companies comparable to those available in Calgary and Edmonton. Some of the most popular energy retailers include:
- AltaGas
- ATCO Power
- ATCOenergy
- Direct Energy
- ENMAX Energy
- Hudson Energy
- Just Energy
- Superior Energy
- TransAlta
- Spot Power
Red Deer’s Rate of Last Resort (ROLR) provider of electric power is ENMAX Energy, while Direct Energy acts as the area’s retailer of natural gas.
History of Electricity and Natural Gas in Red Deer
Red Deer is the third most populous city in the province of Alberta, with a population of just under 100,000 residents.
Initially founded in the 1880s as a convenient trading post between Calgary and Edmonton, the settlement grew slowly but steadily over the next several decades, thanks to its trade-based economy. This process accelerated rapidly between 1907 and 1911 with the introduction of several railway systems, including the Canadian Northern and Alberta Central Railways. Between the turn of the century and 1913, its population swelled from 343 to 2,800 residents.
Red Deer was caught up in the post-WWII oil and natural gas boom; its fortunes once again shaped by the larger, bracketing cities of Calgary and Edmonton. It was then that Red Deer truly transformed into city it is today. Red Deer still has active oil fields, but in the wake of petroleum price crises of the 1970s and ’80s, the city’s economy has expanded into related fields. It is now a major site of oil and natural gas extraction, and the manufacture of petroleum-based polyethylene and vinyl products — as is the case with Edmonton.
In addition to manufacturing, Red Deer produces a number of other natural resources, including coal, timber and sulphur. Thanks to the increasingly diverse nature of the city’s economy, Red Deer’s population increased 20 percent between 2004 and 2011, and has one of the highest average incomes of any city in the country.
