Cost of Service Application

In 2021, an Electric Utility from Ontario required support to develop their five-year capital plan, develop its distribution system plan, write the business cases for their material investments, and develop a customer engagement program. All of this needed to be developed to meet regulatory requirements set out by the Ontario Energy Board (OEB), and ultimately stand up to the rigorous regulatory scrutiny by the OEB and Intervenors.

The capital plan was developed by utilizing an asset management process. This involved assessing the available asset condition information, age data, customer information and overlaid this with their Geographic Information system. This provided a visual aid to help identify key areas that require attention. In addition, we conducted a series of interviews with subject matter experts within the utility and developed a quantitative project prioritization process. Using all this information a $6.7M five-year capital plan was developed, including 9 business cases.

METSCO developed a comprehensive customer engagement program to gather customers insight into their priorities and views on the utilities five-year plan. We facilitated an online customer engagement program, during Covid restrictions, that surveyed close to 300 customers.

The Utility can now better manage their infrastructure needs to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and move towards proactive maintenance projects.

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