Red Tape Reduction
In alignment with the Government of Alberta’s Red Tape Reduction Act (RTRA), we are identifying and taking action to reduce red tape across all departments. The AESO is committed to removing burdensome regulatory requirements as well as streamlining our processes.
The RTRA is focused on economic growth, competitiveness, innovation and reducing unnecessary burden toward a goal of eliminating red tape by one-third by March 31, 2023. As we progress our work within the government’s timeline, we are driving better value across the electricity sector by expediting regulatory processes and attracting investment.
The AESO completed a detailed review of 30,000 regulatory requirements, which can be broken down as follows:
- ISO rules – 39 %
- ISO tariff – 29 %
- Information documents – 7 %
- AESO business processes – 25 %
The vast majority of requirements fall within Independent System Operator (ISO) rules and the ISO tariff, which require stakeholder engagement and a full regulatory process prior to making changes. The AESO most recently marked progress in this area with the October 2021 filing of its Bulk and Regional Rate Design and Modernized Demand Opportunity Service Rate Design application to the Alberta Utilities Commission. This is the AESO’s first modular tariff filing, and this agile and adaptable filing approach will continue to be used going forward.
As we plan additional red tape reductions in the ISO tariff and the ISO rules, we have also been actively reducing red tape and finding efficiencies in our information documents and other business process.
The Road to Success
The government has established a red tape reduction target of 20 per cent by the end of March 2022. Through the ongoing commitment and collective efforts of every department across the AESO, we are pleased to report that as of March 31, 2022, we have achieved a 25 per cent reduction in red tape.
Going forward, stakeholders can expect to continue to see red tape reduction as part of our ongoing business practices. For a listing of our current stakeholder engagements, please click here.
If you would like to comment on the AESO’s red tape efforts, please email us at rtr_comments@aeso.ca
Note: The Government of Alberta has clarified that the Alberta Reliability Standards (ARS) are exempt under the RTRA’s counting guidelines as “flow-through” requirements from another jurisdiction or entity that is out of the government’s control. To learn more about the ARS, please click here.
