Activity and Program-based Benchmarking Initiative

This project benchmarks costs that electricity distributors incur at a program level.

Activity and Program-based Benchmarking (APB) aims to encourage continuous improvement by regulated utilities and increase regulatory efficiency.

APB is the assessment of utilities’ costs at a more targeted level of a specific activity or program.

Benefits of APB for stakeholders:

For Customers – APB provides consistent evaluation and transparent reporting to customers about their utility’s performance relative to other utilities and relative to previous years. This provides further insight into whether their utility is delivering value in terms that are meaningful to customers.

For Utilities – Utilities can identify and learn about potential areas where there are opportunities to enhance performance. APB highlights the best performers across various activities and programs, and the sharing of best practices of these high performers can lead to improvements across the sector.

For the OEB – A well-developed APB program enhances regulatory effectiveness. The OEB can use more proportionate reviews of utilities’ proposed revenue requirements by relying on information and analysis about a utility’s investment planning, cost effectiveness, continuous improvement and operational excellence in meeting customer needs. APB will also support assessment across the sector and comparison with best-in-class performers. APB complements Total Cost Benchmarking, which has been in use for some time, and together they are expected to improve overall regulatory effectiveness to the benefit of customers.