EDA and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Courtesy ©georgeiermann

EDA AND THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC EMPTY OFFICES, QUICK WINS, AND A LONG-TERM VISION

By Teresa Sarkesian, President & CEO, Electricity Distributors Association

The EDA offices have sat empty for many weeks now, as our staff and members practise social distancing and shelter at home. But quiet though those hallways may be, the pace of our efforts to meet member needs is as fast as ever. I’d like to provide readers with a brief overview of key developments and current status, as of early June.

Within less than a week from the declaration of the pandemic by the World Health Organization, we hosted a member conference call with Energy Minister Greg Rickford and Associate Minister Bill Walker. That call initiated close and productive dialogue on some of the immediate electricity related actions the government was poised to take.

With your commitment, we were able to provide unanimous sector support for an extended disconnection moratorium. The government also adopted our recommendation on immediate cost relief for consumers in the form of all-day application of off-peak rates – a measure that remained in place until the end of May, when a new fixed flat rate was temporarily implemented. Our sector and its supply chain were also among the government’s essential workplace declarations (see page 26 for more details these developments).

Throughout all this intense activity, we had excellent ongoing member engagement and input. It included a lot of dialogue between myself and member CEOs, virtual meetings of our councils, and member-driven initiatives such as the production of a pandemic communications toolkit. With the help of sponsors Grant Thornton and Aird & Berlis, the EDA was also able to offer high-value virtual events with a specific focus on member-relevant pandemic impacts, which attracted hundreds of participants.

During April, we were able to shift more of our resources and efforts to longer-term pandemic implications for EDA members, in light of what is almost certain to be a gradual and prolonged return to more normal economic activity. We are mindful of the potential impacts on the financial stability of distribution utilities, particularly since they bear the full collection risk on the part of the electricity sector as a whole.

We advocated for a strategy designed to ensure that more customers can pay their bills, and the government responded. Relief was provided to address what would otherwise have been significant escalation of unit-based Global Adjustment charges, arising from pandemic-related drops in demand. This was followed by the announcement of targeted relief for both residential and small business customers, via new COVID-19 electricity assistance programs.

These outcomes are fully consistent with our sector’s long-standing commitment to and unique relationship with electricity customers, which we continue to highlight through our Power of Local Hydro communications.

Beyond the various challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has caused for our own and other economic sectors, it is a simply horrific development in human terms. By this stage I’m sure many readers have been touched personally by the impact of infection, within their circles of family and friends or perhaps even directly.

As a sector, though, we need to draw learnings and solidify our capacity to move forward in the service of customers. What parts of our new ways of working should we retain? How can we be in an even better state of readiness for the next major disruption, whatever form it takes? And what further measures may be needed to fully safeguard LDC liquidity and financial stability?

We’re still managing immediate pandemic impacts as I write this report, but at the EDA we are also beginning to contemplate these questions. I look forward to dialogue with members on them as we move into what will hopefully soon be a post-pandemic reality

IRONIC. Small interruptions. Big complaints.

LOREM IPSUM DOLOR SIT THERE’S A BIG DISCONNECT BETWEEN OUTAGES AND RELIABILITY SCORES. IT’S TIME TO REDEFINE RELIABILITY. UIS NOSTRUD EXERCITATION ULLAMCO LABORIS NISI UT UIS NOSTRUD RIS

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