Application approved

On April 11, 2024, the Commission issued Decision 28441-D02-2024 approving the AESO's Application for Revised Adjusted Metering Practice Implementation Plan and Related Amendments to Independent System Operator Tariff and Rules. The AESO will work with impacted stakeholders to proceed with the implementation of the adjusted metering practice in accordance with the revised implementation plan, with an effective date of January 1, 2025.

The AESO thanks stakeholders for their contributions to the AMP consultation process. We appreciate and value the time and effort you took to participate and share your thoughts, insights and expertise.

Purpose

The AESO intends to file an application with the Alberta Utilities Commission (Commission) to confirm the Commission’s approval to implement the AESO’s Adjusted Metering Practice (AMP), and to address options for moving forward with the AMP in response to AUC Decision 27047-D01-2022.

Prior to filing this application, the AESO is engaging with stakeholders regarding the continued need and benefit of the AMP and potential approaches to implementing the AMP in light of AUC Decision 27047-D01-2022. Specifically, the AESO is engaging with stakeholders:

1. To provide background and describe the ongoing need for the AMP, including through the review of system access service, a history of energy flows between the transmission and distribution systems, ISO tariff billing rate and cost allocation issues, and the increasing materiality of these issues in the absence of the AMP;
2. To describe how DCG Credits are calculated, the impact of the AMP on DCG Credit amounts, and how the Commission’s approved phase-out of DCG Credits does not resolve billing determinant erosion;
3. To show the impacts (or benefit) to ISO tariff billing from AMP implementation, based on the AESO’s indicative impact analysis; and
4. To describe options for implementing the AMP in light of AUC Decision 27047-D01-2022.

The AESO is also engaging with stakeholders on its proposed revisions to existing ISO tariff provisions for totalized billing.

Background

The AMP is a practice of contracting, measuring, and billing for transmission system access service at substations that provide system access service to electric distribution systems in a way that reflects the actual usage of the transmission system. Under the AMP, all energy flows are individually aggregated to the point of delivery or point of supply based on the direction of flow across the border between the transmission and distribution systems.

On Dec. 10, 2021, the AESO filed an application requesting approval from the Commission of the AESO’s plan to implement the AMP, pursuant to directions issued by the Commission in AUC Decisions 25848-D01-2020 and 26215-D01-2021.

Following the conclusion of AUC Proceeding 27047, the Commission issued AUC Decision 27047-D01-2022 on May 31, 2022, denying approval of the AESO’s proposed AMP implementation plan. In that decision, the Commission questioned the value of implementing the AMP in light of the Commission’s approved phase-out of DCG Credits. The Commission directed the AESO, should it choose to re-file an application to implement the AMP, to include the following information:

1. AACE Class 3 (-20% to +30%) estimates and forecast completion date for all scopes of work proposed in the implementation plan. Alternatively, the AESO could include in its implementation plan mechanisms for cost review and oversight of future phases of AMP implementation.
2. AACE Class 5 (-50% to 100%) estimates for the total theoretical maximum cost of implementation across all phases.
3. Quantification of the benefits of implementation of the AMP, including a cost-benefit analysis.