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Beginning Monday, August 31, 2020, small businesses and registered charities can apply for financial support under the COVID-19 Energy Assistance Program for Small Business (CEAP-SB) if they are eligible for the program.

The OEB has issued a revised Notice of Proposal to Amend the Standard Supply Service Code (SSSC) to enable electricity consumers on the Regulated Price Plan (RPP) to opt out of time-of-use prices and to elect instead to be charged on the basis of tiered pricing.

The OEB has released an updated variance settlement factor that is to be used by electricity distributors to calculate a one-time credit or charge for consumers who choose to stop purchasing electricity through the Regulated Price Plan. This factor is called the "Final RPP Variance Settlement Factor" and is updated on the OEB website monthly.

The OEB has accepted an Assurance of Voluntary Compliance from Plant-E Corp. The Assurance responds to non-compliance related to operation in the wholesale market without a licence.

The OEB has accepted an Assurance of Voluntary Compliance from Oshawa PUC Networks Inc. following an OEB inspection into the company’s disconnection practices. The inspection found that Oshawa PUC Networks Inc. did not comply with certain regulatory requirements for disconnection. This reflects the OEB’s commitment to protecting consumers by ensuring that regulated companies fulfill all of their regulatory requirements prior to disconnecting a customer.

The OEB has released the 2019 Yearbooks of Electricity Distributors and Natural Gas Distributors. The Yearbooks provide interested parties and the general public with financial and operational information collected from distributors.

To support the implementation of the government’s new COVID-19 Energy Assistance Program – Small Business (CEAP-SB), on August 7, 2020, the OEB issued a Decision and Order amending the licences of electricity distributors and unit sub-meter providers to require them to deliver CEAP-SB to their eligible customers. The OEB also issued letters to four natural gas distributors setting out its expectations for their delivering CEAP-SB to their eligible gas customers. The program will launch on August 31, 2020.

OEB staff has issued a Bulletin that expresses staff’s view that behind-the-meter storage assets may be considered a distribution activity if the main purpose is to remediate comparatively poor reliability of service.

The OEB has issued the COVID-19 Forgone Revenue Rate Rider Model and associated accounting guidance to assist those distributors that wish to seek recovery of forgone revenue arising as a result of the postponed implementation of 2020 rates due to the COVID-19 emergency. The OEB also issued an Accounting Order accompanying this guidance, which establishes a new sub-account, Impacts Arising from the COVID-19 Emergency Account, Sub-account Forgone Revenues from Postponing Rate Implementation.

The OEB has amended the 2020 Quarter 3 prescribed accounting interest rates applicable to the carrying charges of deferral and variance accounts of natural gas utilities, electricity distributors and other rate-regulated entities.