Regulatory Innovation

Issue Summary | Industry Response | Issue Management |  Resource Library

ISSUE SUMMARY

The CEA is focused on fostering a more effective and innovative regulatory framework for distribution utilities in a restructuring and competitive electricity market. Aging assets must be replaced at a rate which increases each year, and the costs associated with moving to a fully automated Smart Grid network must be recognized, understood and communicated to both regulators and customers.

The Regulatory Innovation Task Group (RITG) is implementing an industry advocacy strategy on regulatory reform and distribution technology innovation that promotes an efficient and durable incentive-based regulatory model and the development of a more effective policy and regulatory framework that supports greater investment in distribution automation infrastructure. The goal is for more efficient regulatory processes that have streamlined approvals processes, thus eliminating needless risk and complexity, promoting strong performance incentives, sharing the benefits of good performance fairly, and improving the Canadian distribution utilities’ productivity and competitiveness.  

INDUSTRY RESPONSE

The CEA Distribution Council’s Regulatory Innovation Initiative is focused on working with distribution members and governments to foster a more effective and innovative regulatory framework for distribution utilities in a restructuring and competitive electricity market.  The CEA Regulatory Innovation activities include:

• Annual CEA Educational Workshops related to regulatory issues and distribution automation for distribution utilities, provincial energy board members, regulatory staff; federal government departments, manufacturers and suppliers of distribution equipment and services;
• Policy papers or reports by regulatory experts related to distribution regulatory issues such as performance-based regulations (PBR) and statistical benchmarking; and,
• Fostering a co-operative framework for government – industry partnership on distribution system infrastructure upgrading and the need for investment to replace the aging distribution infrastructure.

ISSUE MANAGEMENT

The Regulatory Innovation program is managed by the CEA Distribution Council.

Key Contact
Devin McCarthy
Director, Transmission and Distribution
Tel:  613-688-2960
Email:  mccarthy@electricity.ca

RESOURCE LIBRARY

Relevant Links

Canadian Provincial and Territorial Electric Utility Tribunals

• Canadian Association of Members of Public Utility Tribunals (CAMPUT)
• Alberta Utilities Commission
• British Columbia Utilities Commission
• Manitoba Public Utilities Board
• New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board
• Newfoundland & Labrador Board of Commissioners of Public Utilities
• Northwest Territories Public Utilities Board
• Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board
• Ontario Energy Board
• Prince Edward Island - Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission
• Régie de l'énergie du Québec
• Saskatchewan Rate Review Panel
• Yukon Utilities Board

Other Canadian Utility Regulatory Tribunals

• National Energy Board

Other Energy Regulatory Tribunals and Market Information
 

• Comisión Reguladora de Energía (Mexico)
• Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (USA)
• International Energy Regulatory Network (IERN)
• National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) (USA)
• Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (UK)

Energy Research Organizations and Energy Information Sources

• Canadian Centre for Energy Information
• Canadian Energy Regulatory News (commercially available)
• Canadian Energy Research Institute
• Energy Information Administration (USA)
• International Energy Agency
• National Regulatory Research Institute (USA)
• The Pembina Institute