Electricity – Rates
Application
ATCO Gas, a division of ATCO Gas and Pipelines Ltd., applied for an approval of a Rate Rider W (“2022 Rider W”), effective September 1, 2022, to April 30, 2023, to collect ATCO Gas’ South weather deferral account (“WDA”) balance of approximately $10.677 million as of April 30, 2022. ATCO Gas provided evidence that this collection period would not result in rate shock and that it would have minimal impact on customers as the 2022 Rider W would change rates by approximately one percent over both rate groups over the collection period.
Decision
Since the initial approval of the WDA on January 1, 2008 did not stipulate that the time period could not be altered, the AUC approved ATCO Gas’s request for an eight-month collection period for the 2022 Rider W. The AUC approved the WDA collection of $10.677 million from ATCO Gas South customers by way of the 2022 Rider W from September 1, 2022, to April 30, 2023.
Applicable Legislation
AUC Decision 2008-113 – ATCO Gas re 2008-2009 General Rate Application Phase I
AUC Decision 24665-D01-2019 – ATCO Gas, a division of ATCO Gas and Pipelines Ltd. re 2019 Weather Deferral Account Rate Rider W North
Pertinent Issues
ATCO Gas has both fixed and variable costs. Only the variable costs are sales volume dependent. ATCO Gas recovers a portion of the fixed costs through the variable component of the rates; however, variation in weather can result in an over-or-under collection of the approved revenue, for which there is already an AUC-approved deferral account to record the variances in revenue related to weather.