Consumer Advocate and Cost Award Process Review

The OEB continues its work delivering against the Intervenor Action Plan. The OEB made changes to the original project in response to the Minister of Energy’s November 2023 Letter of Direction: the scope was expanded to include consideration of a dedicated consumer advocate and capping intervenor costs. As well, the project timeline was extended to accommodate the new scope and report back with recommendations by September 2024.

To reflect the work required by the Letter of Direction, a number of projects under the Intervenor Action Plan have been collapsed or expanded and have been renamed:

  • The original Cost Award Guidance and Individual Intervenor Guidance projects in the Intervenor Action Plan were combined into one revised project called the Consumer Advocate and Cost Award Process.
  • The scope of the original Cost Award Data Collection project was expanded to include information on utility application costs in addition to examining data collected on cost awards. This project is now termed the Application Cost Data and Approval Process.


Stakeholder meeting - July 29, 2024

The OEB is seeking feedback from stakeholders to inform its report back to the Minister in September.

Stakeholders are invited to attend a virtual meeting on July 29, 2024 from 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. with our consultant, InterGroup, to learn more about progress to date, including preliminary findings and recommendations from InterGroup on a designated consumer advocate, intervenor cost caps, and more.

The meeting will include breakout rooms to ensure stakeholders have the opportunity to discuss the information with peers and to ensure the OEB is able to gather meaningful feedback from all attendees. An agenda and any supporting materials will be provided to individuals that have confirmed attendance closer to the meeting date.

Participation

Stakeholders who wish to participate are asked to email notice of their intention to registrar@oeb.ca by July 22, 2024. Emails should include “EB-2022-0011 – Intervenor Action Plan” in the subject line. Please note that the OEB will not be offering cost awards to participants.