Overview
To support the government of Ontario’s vision of making the province a world-leading digital jurisdiction and compelled by its own desire to be recognized as a top quartile regulator, the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) embarked on an exciting journey to modernize its operations.
“Because of Digital First, the OEB is now easier to do business with and well positioned to fully support an energy transition that’s radically reshaping Ontario's economic, environmental, and social landscape and the globe.”
Carolyn Calwell
Chief Corporate Services Officer and General Counsel
SITUATION
A Common Starting Point
Prior to the start of its digital journey, the OEB conducted its business like many others, relying on in-person meetings and hearings, consultations, and transactions managed on paper. Manual and often overly complicated processes were cumbersome and required a substantial time commitment from both stakeholders and staff.
Under this pretext, the OEB’s Digital First Strategy was developed to systematically move non-digital OEB interactions between stakeholders and staff to digital engagements.
Touching upon all aspects of OEB operations, many unique improvements are now speeding up processes and services for stakeholders and saving time, cost, and paper with a view to delivering on the OEB’s commitment to deliver service effectively, transparently, and efficiently.
The project’s scope, planning, execution, and results earned the agency first place in the Digital Transformation category of the 2023 Granicus Digital Government Awards.
“Digital First has touched the entire organization, undeniably enhancing our ability to fulfill our core roles of adjudication, consumer protection, policy development, and the licensing of energy companies.”
Carolyn Calwell
Chief Corporate Services Officer and General Counsel
SOLUTION
Changes Show Improvement
The OEB’s digital transformation saw agency teams undertake a variety of projects. Since implementation, these initiatives have created an ever-changing ecosystem built around digital tools and ease of use.
Major projects included:
- Engage with Us: A new OEB Digital Engagement Platform, Engage with Us, hosted by Granicus, was launched in December 2021. It centralizes the OEB’s stakeholder consultation projects in a web environment that includes many embedded tools, such as the ability to sign up to follow a task, project milestone tracking, outbound newsletter and updates, engagement data reporting, surveys, and others.
- OEB.ca: In November 2021, the OEB launched a rejuvenated website, which improved navigation and the user experience, eliminated areas of content duplication, improved search functionality, and provided an engaging new design.
- Electronic Filing: The OEB enabled electronic filing of rate applications, a process that in the past required the filing and shipping of four paper copies, often comprising boxes of binders full of information, by applicants. The result has been notable time savings, production and shipping costs, and thousands of sheets of paper for utility applicants.
- Intervenor Cost Claims: Intervenors to OEB hearings and consultation processes may now file their costs for reimbursement online through the Intervenor Cost Claims Portal. Through use of the portal, intervenors can now track the progress of their claim and receive their reimbursements faster. The new system integrates with OEB internal accounting/payment systems creating processing time savings. The portal also eliminates manual work and improves accuracy and security, while standardizing the cost claims process for Intervenors and eliminating duplication of effort.
- Utility Service Area Map: An interactive Utilities Service Area Map, accessible through OEB.ca, now provides the public and sector stakeholders with easy access to digital information about where service territory certificates and licenses have been issued in the province.
- Interactive System Reliability Dashboard: Brought online earlier this year, the dashboard enables consumers to visualize electricity distributors’ system reliability data including breakdown by cause codes. Designed with transparency and accessibility in mind, the dashboard provides monthly and annual data on reliability performance for a single electricity distributor, two electricity distributors presented side-by-side, as well as the electricity distribution sector as a whole.
- Incentive Rate-setting Mechanism (IRM): The OEB launched a new online filing platform (piloted by three distributors) for Incentive Rate-setting Mechanism (IRM) applications. IRM is a method of setting rates that encourages utilities to become more efficient in ways that will benefit their customers through better service and lower rate increases. The new platform replaces Excel-based IRM applications, offering a more streamlined process by bringing in data from the new RRR reporting platform, thereby eliminating duplication and burden for utility applicants.
RESULTS
A Digital-First Organization Rebuilt
The Engage with Us platform has now hosted 37 projects. Currently, 28 projects are active with 480+ registered participants. The site has a 36% combined rate of informed and engaged visitors, and 48,000+ unique visits all-time.
In a recent stakeholder satisfaction survey, Engage with Us was rated by respondents as highly effective, and it remains a preferred vehicle for hosting consultations. It also provides multiple ways to communicate and participate with the OEB—no matter where they are. In return, the agency gained valuable insights into project direction, innovations, opportunities, and feedback it had never received.
The OEB’s Digital First strategy initiatives have been one of the greatest contributors to its drive to be best-in-class. They have disrupted positively the ways it engages with the sector and conducts its business.
