Electricity – Rules
Application
The Alberta Electric System Operator (“AESO”) applied to the AUC for approval of amendments to the following Independent System Operator (“ISO”) rules:
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s. 202.6, Adequacy of Supply;
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s. 306.5, Generation Outage Reporting and Coordination, and
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s. 306.7, Mothball Outage Reporting.
Decision
The AUC approved the changes proposed by the AESO, effective January 1, 2023.
S. 202.6 of the ISO rules provides rules related to supply adequacy forecasts and assessments and sets out actions the AESO may take in the event of supply shortfall on the Alberta Interconnected Electric System. The AUC also approved minor changes to the terminology contained within ss. 306.5 and 306.7, resulting from the changes to the assessment method in section 202.6. The changes to s. 306.5 and 306.7 were administrative and uncontroversial.
Applicable Legislation
Electric Utilities Act, SA 2003, c E-5.1 – ss. 7, 20.2, 20.9, 20.21.
AUC Rule 017: Procedures and Process for Development of ISO Rules and Filing of ISO Rules with the Alberta Utilities Commission
Pertinent Issues
In order to account for wind and solar generation, the AESO determined that the long-term adequacy assessment methodology in subsection 4 of s. 202.6 of the ISO rules required amendments. The AESO decided it would be most efficient and flexible to transfer the detailed calculations and methodologies from s. 202.6 to an associated information document because revising calculations or methodologies contained in ISO rules create a regulatory burden. In proposing this transfer of the detailed calculations and methodologies from s. 202.6 to an associated information document, the AESO considered the Government of Alberta’s red tape reduction initiative.
The AUC accepted the submissions from the AESO that the suggested transfer of detailed calculations and methods from s. 202.6 to a more easily updated information document supports regulatory efficiency and the Government of Alberta’s red tape reduction initiative without compromising transparency or accountability, even though information documents are not authoritative documents. The AUC, therefore, approved the amendments.
