Interim Rates – Revenue Requirement
ATCO Pipelines, a division of ATCO Gas and Pipelines Ltd. (“ATCO”) applied for approval of a monthly fixed fee of $19,021,720 on an interim basis, representing 60 percent of its forecast revenue requirement increase for 2016, to be effective April 1, 2016. ATCO submitted that the proposed increase was an increase of $22.4 million per annum from the approved 2015 interim revenue requirement, or an increase of 11 percent.
ATCO’s 2015-2016 general rate application (“GRA”) requested approval of forecast revenue requirements of $208,940,000 for 2015 and $238,844,000 for 2016. In Decision 3577-D01-2016 the AUC held that ATCO was required to submit a compliance filing.
ATCO updated its requested interim revenue requirement amount, submitting that due to scheduling delays its requested effective date of April 1, 2016 was no longer feasible. ATCO requested that it be granted an interim revenue requirement of $239,023,000, equivalent to its 2016 applied-for revenue requirement in its compliance filing, or $19,918,563. ATCO submitted that its request was reasonable and would minimize rate shock, given the shorter time period.
The AUC determined that the requested increase in the interim revenue requirement was material, and would allow ATCO to continue its operations without negative impacts on the safety or reliability of service to customers pending the outcome of its GRA.
The AUC approved ATCO’s requested interim revenue requirement of $19,918,563 per month on an interim refundable basis. The AUC found that the monthly amount was prepared using the most up to date information, and noting that the monthly amount would not fully recover ATCO’s anticipated annualized shortfall of $33.1 million. The AUC, noted that the monthly amount was set on an interim basis at $17,157,800 for the first four months of 2016.
The AUC approved the monthly interim revenue requirement of $19,918,583 on an interim refundable basis, effective May 1, 2016.
