Rates – System Access Service – Update
In this decision, the AUC considered an application (the “Application”) by EPCOR Distribution & Transmission Inc. (“EPCOR”) requesting approval for an update to its 2020 system access service (“SAS”) rates. The AUC approved EPCOR’s 2020 SAS rate update as filed, effective July 1, 2020.
Background
EPCOR’s SAS rates are designed to recover charges paid by EPCOR to the Alberta Electric System Operator (“AESO”) for transmission services provided to customers in its service territory.
On December 17, 2019, the AUC issued Decision 24882-D01-2019, approving EPCOR’s 2020 SAS rates. On February 28, 2020, the AUC issued Decision 25175-D01-2020, which reflected the AESO’s 2020 Independent System Operator (“ISO”) tariff update and approved changes to all of the AESO demand transmission service (“DTS”) rates components (i.e., energy, demand and customer charges). In this Application, EPCOR requested approval to update its 2020 SAS rates effective July 1, 2020, to update its SAS cost of service model to align with the changes to DTS rate components.
EPCOR explained that it calculated its proposed updated 2020 SAS rates using the same methodology that was approved for its most recent 2020 SAS rates in Decision 24882-D01-2019. In this Application, EPCOR only updated its SAS rates to reflect the 2020 AESO DTS costs.
EPCOR provided a table showing the bill comparison to indicate the impact of updated SAS rates from June 2020 to July 2020 for a typical customer in each of its rate classes, and noted the impact to each rate class is less than 10 percent:
Bill comparison summary for a typical customer (June 2020 to July 2020)
AUC Findings
The AUC approved EPCOR’s proposal to update its 2020 SAS rates to reflect the changes to the DTS rates approved in the AESO’s 2020 ISO tariff update. The AUC agreed with EPCOR that the update provides more precise rates and better reflects cost causation. The AUC found EPCOR’s calculations of its proposed 2020 SAS rates to be consistent with past SAS rate applications. The AUC also found the proposed bill impacts provided by EPCOR in the table above to be reasonable.
