Demand Transmission Service – Demand Opportunity Service
In this decision, the AUC considered the Alberta Electric System Operator (“AESO”)’s application pursuant to section 82 of the Electric Utilities Act (“EUA”) requesting approval of a $2.90 per megawatt hour (“/MWh”) charge to all Demand Transmission Service (“Rate DTS”) and demand opportunity service (“Rate DOS”) market participants, with the exception of Medicine Hat and BC Hydro at Fort Nelson, for metered energy from January 1, 2019 through December 31, 2019 inclusive (“Rider F”).
The AUC approved the applied-for 2019 Balancing Pool Consumer Allocation Rider F without modification, finding that all substantive aspects of the applied-for Rider F were unchanged from the 2018 Rider F.
Legislative Scheme
The Balancing Pool is the agency responsible for managing the power purchase arrangements for several major power plants and was established to facilitate the management of certain assets, revenues, and expenses arising from the transition to competition in Alberta’s electric industry.
Section 82 of the EUA requires the Balancing Pool to prepare a budget for each fiscal year setting out the estimated revenues and expenses of the Balancing Pool. Based on this forecast, the Balancing Pool determines an annualized amount that will be refunded to (or collected from) electricity market participants over the year.
Under section 82(4) of the EUA, the Balancing Pool must notify the AESO of an annualized amount for each fiscal year.
Pursuant to section 82(6)(b) of the EUA, the AUC must “approve, with or without modification, the allocation of the annualized amount to the owners of electric distribution systems, industrial systems and persons that have made arrangements under section 101(2),” being Rate DTS and Rate DOS market participants.
Background
The Balancing Pool provided notice to the AESO of a negative annualized amount of $181,319,600 for 2019 and stated that the Balancing Pool’s board of directors approved a charge of $2.90/MWh of consumption.
The AESO proposed to charge the annualized amount through a $2.90/MWh charge to all system access services under Rate DTS and Rate DOS through Rider F.
AUC Findings
Section 82(6)(a) of the EUA directs the AUC to approve the annualized amount provided to the AESO by the Balancing Pool, without modification. Accordingly, the AUC approved the 2019 annualized amount of negative $181,319,600 provided to the AESO by the Balancing Pool.
The AUC found that the $2.90/MWh to be charged to all Rate DTS and Rate, to recover the annualized amount of negative $181,319,600, was reasonable. With the exception of customers directly connected to the transmission system, the AESO’s Rider F flows to end-user electricity customers in the province by means of related Balancing Pool riders implemented by the distribution utilities.
The AUC agreed with the AESO’s proposal that all substantive aspects of Rider F, including applicability criteria and use of a $/MWh approach, continued unchanged from the 2018 Rider F, which was previously approved by the AUC and currently in effect.
Summary
The AUC approved the applied-for 2019 Balancing Pool Consumer Allocation Rider F without modification, finding that all substantive aspects of the applied-for Rider F were unchanged from the 2018 Rider F.
