On February 25, 2019, the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) staff
released their Discussion Paper on Activity and Program Based
Benchmarking (APB) For Electricity Distributors. The stated
objective of APB is "to establish a framework to enable the
comparison of utility cost performance in specific capital and
OM&A activities/programs, thereby further helping OEB assess
utility efficacy at delivering value to customers." OEB staff
states that APB "will allow identification of best practices
in key programs, peer cost comparisons and assessment of
year-over-year continuous improvement based on key activities and
programs."
As set out in the cover letter accompanying the Discussion
Paper, APB is intended to be used as a tool for assessing the
performance of regulated utilities, beginning with electricity
distributors. According to the Discussion Paper, the OEB plans to
use APB results to, among other things, evaluate/identify areas
that may require detailed review in rate
