Law360 Canada ( October 27, 2026, 9:49 AM EDT) -- Appeal by ATCO Gas and Pipelines Ltd. and ATCO Electric Ltd. (collectively, appellants) from Alberta Utilities Commission (Commission) decisions reopening their 2018-2022 performance-based regulation plans and ordering customer refunds. The appellants provided distribution services for natural gas and electricity in Alberta, charging their customers rates approved by the Commission. The appellants’ approved return on equity was 8.5 per cent, but their returns exceeded the reopener thresholds in 2021 and 2022. The Commission found that substantial cost savings were unexplained or attributable to factors other than performance-based regulation incentives, including decisions not to pursue certain capital projects and COVID-related externalities, resulting in rates that were not just and reasonable. It ordered refunds of $36 million from ATCO Gas and $35 million from ATCO Electric. The appellants argued that the Commission improperly focused on whether savings resulted from efficiencies, imposed an unexpected evidentiary burden requiring efficiencies to be tracked and quantified, could not find rates unreasonable after finding no defect in plan design, imposed prohibited retroactive ratemaking and an earnings-sharing mechanism inconsistent with the plans, and denied them procedural fairness by limiting additional evidence during the remedy phase....