FEI-FEVI 2010 EEC Report filed March 31, 2011 - FortisBC

FORTISBC ENERGY INC. AND FORTISBC ENERGY (VANCOUVER ISLAND) INC.
2010 ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND CONSERVATION ANNUAL REPORT
14 DATA GATHERING REPORTING AND INTERNAL CONTROL PROCESSES
14.1 Introduction
In its EEC Decision, the Commission directed the Companies to include a discussion in the EEC
Annual Report of the Companies’ internal data gathering, monitoring, and reporting control
practices. This section addresses that directive. As this section demonstrates, the Companies
have business practices in place to ensure EEC activities and associated spending are in
compliance with the Commission Orders and internal control processes of the Companies in
general.
This section provides general information on data gathering and on the Companies’ business
practices related to program development and application processing. It also includes
comments from the Companies’ internal audit group on EEC initiative controls.
14.2 DSM System Project: Update
As was reported in the 2009 EEC Annual Report, the expansion of EEC programs resulting from
the EEC Decision has created a need to develop a robust data capture and reporting system.
With the increase in the number of programs and participants, the existing Excel-based DSM
tracking and reporting methods are not capable of handling the future business needs and
requirements of the EEC activities. As a result, the Companies determined that a new tracking
system was needed to enable it to:
• Track EEC program participation, costs, and energy savings for incentive-based
programs;
• Track information about non-incentive programs and activities;
• Track actual and forecasts vs. budgets;
• Provide reports for internal and external stakeholders including program partners and
the Commission;
• Allow for scenario modeling for program planning and design; and
• Support DSM cost-benefit analysis on a program by program basis as well as at the
portfolio level (or EEC plan level).
To address the requirement for more robust program data gathering, tracking, and reporting, the
DSM System (“DSMS”) project was launched in the fall of 2008. The Companies eventually
selected a web-based program tracking and reporting system called TrakSmart, and entered
into an Agreement with TrakSmart’s provider Nexant, to obtain the TrakSmart system.
Project implementation commenced early in 2010 and through the process of implementing
TrakSmart, it was identified that more internal resources would be required to integrate the
SECTION 14: DATA GATHERING REPORTING AND INTERNAL CONTROL PROCESSES Page 260