Rates – Deferral Accounts
In this decision, the AUC approved the application filed by ATCO Pipelines (“AP”), a division of ATCO Gas and Pipelines Ltd., requesting approval of its compliance filing to Decision 24817-D01-2020, which addressed AP’s first compliance filing to Decision 23793-D01-2019, AP’s 2019-2020 general rate application (“GRA”). The AUC approved the resulting revenue requirements for the years 2019 and 2020 as filed.
Introduction
In its application AP requested approval or confirmation of:
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The 2019 forecast revenue requirement of $275,552,000 and its 2020 forecast revenue requirement of $307,199,0003 as final;
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The finalization of all outstanding reserve and deferral account balances, along with the 2017-2018 Weld Assessment and Repair Program (“WARP”) revenue requirement;
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The disposition of the information and technology (“IT”) costs; and
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AP’s compliance with directions given in Decision 24817-D01-2020.
Compliance with AUC Directions from Decision 24817-D01-2020
To comply with directions in Decision 24817-D01-2020, AP revised its 2019-2020 forecast revenue requirements as follows:
Regarding directions related to the IT Common Matters decision, the AUC noted that AP’s compliance and corresponding adjustments could have been more effectively presented, allowing for easier reconciliation of adjustments by the AUC. The AUC requested that, in future compliance filing applications, adjustments intended to address multiple directions not be combined within single line items. However, the AUC found that AP had properly applied adjustments to its IT rates and recalculated the 2015-2020 refund using its weighted average cost of capital as the interest rate applied to the carrying costs, resulting in a total refund of $4.02 million, as directed by the AUC.
Other Matters: 2019-2020 Revenue Requirement true-up and Deferral Accounts
AP proposed including its 2019-2020 revenue requirement true-up as a one-time adjustment to AP’s monthly revenue requirement to NOVA Gas Transmissions Ltd. (“NGTL”). AP also proposed to settle all outstanding reserve and deferral account balances, including the 2017, 2018 WARP revenue requirement approved by the AUC in Decision 24176-D01-2020, as a one-time adjustment to AP’s monthly revenue requirement to NGTL.
Findings
The AUC approved AP’s calculations of the reserve and deferral account balances and found the settlement of these balances as a one-time adjustment to be reasonable and consistent with previous AUC decisions. The AUC approved AP’s revenue requirement amounts of $275,552,000 for 2019 and $307,199,000 for 2020 on a final basis. The AUC also approved the one-time charge of $6,626,000 to be collected from NGTL.
