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Bulletin 2007-29

August 13, 2007

Electronic Proceeding Submission System - Interrogatory Process Requirements

The Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) implemented the Proceeding Submission and Proceeding Search service on June 23, 2007. Based on stakeholder feedback, the EUB has relaxed the requirement for the submission of individual information requests and responses (IRs) to be entered onto the forms on the Electronic Proceeding Submission (EPS) system. The concerns outlined by our stakeholders in the past weeks cannot be easily dealt with using the current technology solution. Users of the EPS system will not be able to receive the full benefits that were envisioned when this project was undertaken due to the administrative burden required for data input into the forms. Unfortunately, this change will limit the search capabilities and system categorization of IRs by issue in order to provide a workable solution to all our stakeholders.

Effective immediately, the EUB will accept a bulk submission of IRs from one party to another registered party. Some modifications to the system to enhance this change will be implemented in the coming months. The on-line documentation for the EPS system will be updated to reflect changes to the IR and exhibit numbering conventions.

For proceedings in progress on the EPS system, an attachment to an individual information request or information response form with a full set of IRs will be accepted. Each submission on the EPS system should relate to IRs pertaining to one party only. For example, if Utility X is responding to IRs from Interveners A, B, and C, the Utility will make three submissions on the EPS system. The first will contain all of the responses to Intervener A, the second will contain all of the responses to Intervener B, etc. All parties should ensure that each information request and response is clearly labelled with a reference to an issue from the EUB's established issues list on each IR within their bulk submissions. In addition, all attachments to IRs must be clearly distinguished in the attachment description with "Attachment to Requestor-Respondent.IR #".

The EUB will continue to investigate options with respect to the categorization of IRs by issue and will work with our stakeholders to come up with a workable solution.

The EPS system affords the EUB and all parties many benefits, and the EUB hopes this change will encourage stakeholders to fully adopt the system as a whole.

[Original signed by]

R. D. Heggie
Executive Manager
Utilities Branch