Enforcement Guidance About Affiliated Entities Participating in the Capacity Auction Published
October 23, 2025
On October 16, the IESO’s Market Assessment and Compliance Division (MACD) published a Statement of Approach regarding MACD’s enforcement method towards market participants with hourly demand response resources registering affiliated entities as market participants with their own hourly demand response resources. This conduct raises two concerns under the General Conduct Rule (Chapter 0.1, section 10A.1):
- First, participating in the capacity auction with multiple affiliated entities may allow market participants to game the Enhanced Tie-Break Methodology used to award capacity.
- Second, participating in the capacity auction with multiple affiliated entities may allow market participants to avoid the application of the performance adjustment factor.
MACD will carefully monitor the participation of affiliated entities in the capacity auction. Where affiliated entities participate in the capacity auction in a manner that confers an unfair advantage to the group at the expense of competition, they may be subject to compliance investigation and sanction under the General Conduct Rule.
More details can be found on the IESO's website.