Le 20 octobre 2008
No de dossier : R-3677-2008
Traduction d’une réponse à la DDR N° 1 de RNCREQ
Page 1 de 3
TRADUCTION D’UNE RÉPONSE À LA DEMANDE DE RENSEIGNEMENTS N° 1 DE
RNCREQ À HQD
DEMANDE DU DISTRIBUTEUR RELATIVE À L'ÉTABLISSEMENT DES TARIFS
D'ÉLECTRICITÉ POUR L'ANNÉE TARIFAIRE 2009-2010
R-3677-2008
Pièce : HQD-16, document 10
Réponse traduite : no. 5
Question:
5. Please provide a precise description of the meaning of each the three blocks
of columns in the tables in reference i), namely:
• « Nombre de clients dont la consommation maximale est facturée dans la
strate »
• « Nombre de factures dont le dernier kWh est compris dans la strate »
• « Répartition de la consommation totale par strate »
Response:
At the outset, the Distributor notes that the billing period is approximately
60 days for residential customers and 30 days for customers with a
capacity invoice. This means that each customer receives an average of 6
bills per year.
Since the Distributor’s data is not limited to six per customer, any
calculation with the objective of fragmenting these bills is based on a
prorated rule according to the number of days of consumption. It is the
reason for which the Tables cited in the reference, and produced every year
at OC’s request, (see response to OC question 74 which can be found in
Exhibit HQD-15, document 8 of application R-3644-2007) will only ever be
an aggregation of all customers’ consumption based on the different
thresholds of the 1st block, and it must be understood as such.
OC’s question also involves calculating bills by season (summer/winter).
However, customers are rarely ever billed precisely at the beginning or the
end of a month or season. To generate data by month or season, it is
therefore necessary to consider adjacent billing periods. For example, the
bill for the beginning of the summer period partially covers winter months.
Conversely, the bill for the beginning of the winter period also includes
summer consumption.
In order to adequately cover seasons, the Distributor must therefore
calculate portions of bills that are associated with these adjacent billing
periods, as required. In the Tables cited in the reference, this is what leads
Le 20 octobre 2008
No de dossier : R-3677-2008
Traduction d’une réponse à la DDR N° 1 de RNCREQ
Page 2 de 3
to the creation of an average of 17 bills per customer. In order to assist in
understanding these Tables, the Distributor has modified the way the
information is treated and presented (see response to OC question 37.1 in
Exhibit HQD-16, document 9).
The columns that appear below the heading « Billed Consumption » are
obtained by simulating residential customers’ actual bills according to
different thresholds in the 1st block. For example, over an annual period
and for all residential customers, if the threshold is 5 kWh per day this
simulation shows that 5 551 GWh will be billed in the 1st block (5 kWh or
less) and 46 039 GWh will be billed in the 2nd block (6 KWh or more), for
proportions that are respectively 10.8% and 89.2%. This simulation also
makes it possible to determine the number of customers billed in the 1st
block based on different thresholds throughout the year. For example, in
the same table, using a threshold of 25 KWh, 428 000 residential customers
would always be billed in the 1st block regardless of the number of bills.
However, this number does not say anything about customers who may
always have 5 bills in the 1st block and a 6th bill for consumption which
exceeds that threshold, nor does it say anything about customers who
only have 4 bills that are exclusively in the 1st block and so on.
Finally, the data in column “Number of Monthly Periods Billed Only in the
1st Block” were calculated based on approximately 17 million residential
customer bills that are issued annually (2.9 million customers X 6 bills per
year). The latter were changed to daily invoices prorated to the number of
days per billing period. These 17 million bills therefore amount to more
than 1 billion daily bills (17 million bills X 60 days). These are then sorted
and associated to a level in the 1st consumption block. Thus, all daily bills
of 5 KWh or less are associated with a 5 KWh threshold in the 1st block; all
daily bills between 6 kWh to 10 kWh are associated with a 10 KWh
threshold in the 1st block, etc.
The number of bills associated with each threshold is then divided by 30 to
show how many monthly billing periods would always fall within the 1st
block, based on the different thresholds, assuming each customer’s daily
consumption is consistent over time.
In keeping with the words of caution expressed above, the Distributor
reiterates that this data cannot be used in any way to estimate the rate
impact that would result from a change in the rate structure. Only customer
by customer rate simulations make it possible to carry out that exercise
with precision. This means that the 6 bills for each of the 2.9 million
customers are recalculated using new parameters in order to obtain a new
bill. For each customer, this new annual bill is then compared with the
actual annual bill which is based on the rates that are in effect. It is these
2.9 million comparisons that make it possible to carry out the distribution
Le 20 octobre 2008
No de dossier : R-3677-2008
Traduction d’une réponse à la DDR N° 1 de RNCREQ
Page 3 de 3
of rate impacts which appear, for example, in table 60 or in Appendix C of
Exhibit HQD-12, document 1.