Bulletin – Rule 007 – Rule 008 – Need – Facility Application
The AUC announced the repeal of AUC Rule 008: Rules Respecting Use of Abbreviated Needs Process (“Rule 008”), to be effective April 1, 2015. The AUC also announced a number of changes to AUC Rule 007: Applications for Power Plants, Substations, Transmission Lines, Industrial System Designations and Hydro Developments (“Rule 007”) to implement the recent amendment of the Transmission Regulation.
The Transmission Regulation was amended by the Transmission Amendment Regulation (AR 176/2014), which came into force on September 22, 2014. The amendments include the following:
(a) Certain exemptions to the requirement to file needs identification documents with the AUC for minor capital maintenance types of projects, minor system enhancement and upgrade projects, and certain types of connection projects;
(b) The creation of an independent system operator (ISO) abbreviated needs approval process which will replace certain AUC needs identification documents approvals;
(c) Clarification and amendment of the requirements with respect to needs identification documents and abbreviated needs identification documents still requiring AUC approval;
(d) The enabling of market participants to apply for approval from the AUC to construct transmission facilities and transfer them to the transmission facility owner; and
(e) The use of approved cost estimates.
The AUC noted that the reason for the repeal of Rule 008 was that it was no longer being used, and not required. The abbreviated requirements will be incorporated into the needs identification document process set out in the revised Rule 007, for which consultation is still ongoing.
Since the AUC considers the outstanding changes to Rule 007 to be straightforward with the implementation of the changes to the Transmission Regulation and the Transmission Deficiency Regulation, the AUC noted it would be implementing such further revisions without soliciting feedback from all stakeholders.
