Regulation Guidelines
Utility Advisory Council members and Working Group members have worked with the Electrical Safety Authority to define and produce guidelines to facilitate implementation of specific sections of the Electrical Distribution Safety Regulation. Consideration has been given to ensuring guidelines will clarify requirements for local distribution companies and facilitate compliance to these requirements. Guidelines will continue to be evaluated and updated, and new guidelines will be developed as required to help the industry maintain safety standards. To ensure Electricity Distributors are working with current versions all posted guidelines will have a date and revision number.
Working Groups have produced the following guidelines. These guidelines clarify and interpret the requirements for compliance to specific sections in the Electrical Distribution Safety Regulation and should be used by all Electricity Distributors in Ontario. For information not available on this website, please contact Utility.Regulations@electricalsafety.on.ca.
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Technical Guidelines: Approval of Designs, Equipment and Construction
Reporting of Serious Electrical Incidents
Proximity to Distribution Lines
Distributor Annual Audit & Declaration of Compliance
Disconnection of Unused Distribution Lines
Third Party Attachments
Change of Electrical Distribution System Ownership
Distributed Energy Resources
Technical Guidelines: Approval of Designs, Equipment and Construction
Sections 6 and 7 of the Regulation require that all equipment and plans or standard design drawings used in the construction of a distribution system be approved. Section 8 requires that all construction be inspected and certified safe before being put into use.
Technical Guideline for Equipment, Design and Construction
Guideline - Approval of Equipment
Guideline - Approval of Designs
Guideline - Construction Inspection and Approval
Reporting of Serious Electrical Incidents
Section 12 of the Regulation requires that Electricity Distributors notify ESA of any serious electrical incident which they become aware within 48 hours.The Guideline for Reporting Serious Electrical Incidentsclarifies what should be reported and how it should be reported; it also includes a template for reporting information to ESA.
Guideline for Serious Electrical Incident Reporting
Serious Electrical Incident Report Form
Proximity to Distribution Lines
Section 10 of the Regulation defines the requirements for placing objects in proximity to overhead and underground distribution lines. Two guidelines, Proximity to Distribution Lines, and Guideline for Excavation in the Vicinity of Utility Lines dealing with distribution line excavation have been produced.
The Guideline for Excavating in the Vicinity of Utility Lines is available to view, download and print immediately by opening the document below.
Guideline for Excavation in the Vicinity of Utility Lines
Guideline for Proximity to Distribution Lines
Distributor Annual Audit & Declaration of Compliance
Section 13 of the Regulation requires an audit of the distributor’s compliance with sections 4,5,6,7, and 8 be audited on annual basis. Section 14 of the Regulation requires that the distributor file a Declaration of Compliance with sections 3,9,10,11, and 12 on an annual basis. Two guidelines, the Guideline for Audit and the Guideline - Declaration of Compliance have been produced to assist distributors.
Auditor Presentation — Audit Debrief 2024
Auditor Presentation — Audit Debrief 2023
Auditor Presentation — Audit Debrief 2022
Auditor Presentation — Audit Debrief 2021
Auditor Presentation — Audit Debrief 2020
Remote Audit Meeting Minutes — Apr. 2, 2020
Auditor Presentation — Audit Debrief 2019
Past Auditor Presentations 2015-2018
Guideline — Annual Compliance Declaration
Annual Compliance Declaration Form
Disconnection of Unused Distribution Lines
Section 11 of the Regulation requires distributors to disconnect and ground unused lines for certain lines.
Guideline for Disconnecting Unused Lines
Third Party Attachments
The Regulation requires that all construction affecting the distribution system be inspected and approved, including third party attachments to the distribution system. A working group consisting of Electricity Distributors and communications industry representatives met to define and clarify what is required for all parties to meet the Regulation. The result was the Guideline below.
Guideline for Third Party Attachments
Change of Electrical Distribution System Ownership
Section 3 of the Regulation requires the following three actions happen prior to certain changes of ownership demarcation point or certain transfers of ownership.
These are:
a) The Electricity Distributor notifies ESA of the proposed change or transfer;
b) The Electricity Distributors notifies the transferee that on completion of the change or transfer, the distribution system or part transferred becomes subject to the requirements of the Ontario Electrical Safety Code; and
c) A report is prepared that identifies any modifications to the distribution system (or part) that are required to ensure that the part of the distribution system to be transferred will be in conformance with the requirements of the Ontario Electrical Safety Code. That report shall be provided to the non-distributor transferee and ESA.
Guideline for Change of Ownership
Distributed Energy Resources
This Guideline has been prepared to provide guidance to Electricity Distributors on how to comply with Ontario Regulation 22/04 Electrical Distribution Safety. Specifically, this Guideline addresses whether energy storage and generation installations are deemed part of a distribution system by being a distribution asset. This Guideline along with the Regulation and other appropriate standards form the basis on which ESA will assess the safety of the electrical distribution installations within the Province of Ontario.