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Employee incentive programs
 3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2013
Employee incentive programs  
Employee incentive programs

8. Employee incentive programs

  • Long-Term Incentive Program

        The following table summarizes the changes in LTIP notional units during the three months ended March 31, 2013:

(Units in thousands)
  Units   Grant Date
Weighted-Average
Price per Unit		  

Outstanding at December 31, 2012

     492,535   $ 13.9  

Granted

     482,384     4.9  

Additional units from dividends

     9,906     13.8  

Forfeited

     (42,000 )   12.3  

Vested

     (200,697 )   13.6  
           

Outstanding at March 31, 2013

     742,128   $ 8.2  
           

        Certain awards have a market condition based on our total shareholder return during the performance period compared to a group of peer companies. Compensation expense for notional units granted in 2013 is recorded net of estimated forfeitures. See Note 14 to the consolidated financial statements in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012 for further details. Cash payments made for vested notional units for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was $0.9 million.

        The calculation of simulated total shareholder return under the Monte Carlo model for the remaining time in the performance period for awards with market conditions included the following assumptions as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012:

 
   March 31, 2013   December 31, 2012  

Weighted average risk free rate of return

     0.1%     0.1 – 0.3%  

Dividend yield

     8.0%     10.1%  

Expected volatility—Atlantic Power

     48.6%     22.5%  

Expected volatility—peer companies

     11.9 – 72.8%     11.9 – 97.1%  

Weighted average remaining measurement period

     0.9 years     1.4 years