Electricity – Rates
Application
In this application, the Alberta Electric System Operator (“AESO”) submitted an application to finalize Rider L and stated that the collected amount exceeded the approved amount by $538,642.49. The AESO requested approval to pay all amounts (i) over-collected by the AESO under Rider L and (ii) over-collected and paid by distribution facility owners (“DFOs”) to the AESO as part of the Utility Payment Deferral Program (“UPDP”) (collectively, the “Over-Collected Amount”) to the Balancing Pool. The Balancing Pool proposed to apply the amounts as an offset to the Balancing Pool deferral account liability or to otherwise reduce the Balancing Pool’s revenue requirement.
Decision
The AUC found that the AESO’s request to pay the Over-Collected Amount to the Balancing Pool is acceptable.
Applicable Legislation
Utility Payment Deferral Program Act, SA 2020, c U-4 – ss 1(d), 7(1), 9(2), 24, and 25(2).
Utility Payment Deferral Program Regulation, Alta Reg 287/2020 – s 3(6).
Pertinent Issues
In this decision, the AUC closed out the AESO UPDP rate rider, called Rider L. The AUC also closed out an EPCOR Energy Alberta GP Inc. (“EPCOR”) deferral account established under the UPDP and approved a payment of $2,458.581 from the AESO to PowerBill Utility Billing Solutions Inc. (“PowerBill”) for unrecovered electricity customer bills in connection with the UPDP. The AUC further approved the proposal from the AESO to pay the over-collected rate rider funds amounting to $536,183.91 to the Balancing Pool.
PowerBill submitted an application requesting funding relief from Rider L for unrecovered electricity customer bill amounts. PowerBill submitted that $2,341.50 in customer bills deferred under the UPDP, remained unpaid for electricity charges, and $915.94 remained unpaid for natural gas charges. Further, PowerBill submitted that $9,909.76 remained unpaid and that it could not separate this into the amounts owing for electricity and natural gas charges.
The AUC accepted the $2,341.50 in outstanding electricity charges. It determined that this amount, in addition to $117.08 for GST, should be refunded to PowerBill by the AESO from the over-collected Rider L fund. Without knowing how much of the $9,909.76 unrepaid combined natural gas and electricity charges are for natural gas and how much is for electricity, the AUC noted that it could not approve PowerBill’s request to recover the $9,909.76.
The AUC had approved EPCOR’s application to establish a deferral account through the UPDP. EPCOR requested approval to close the deferral account and submitted information confirming the account balance was zero.
