Every electricity and natural gas customer has a retailer of record. The retailer of record is the service provider which is responsible for billing the customer for energy usage. In turn, the retailer of record is billed by the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) for the electricity usage of customers and billed by the natural gas distribution utility for the natural gas usage of customers. The determination of how electrical energy and natural gas usage is recorded and subsequently allocated to the retailers of record at the site (meter) level in Alberta is done through a process called load settlement.

Rule 021: Settlement System Code Rules and Rule 028: Natural Gas Settlement System Code Rules define the business processes and mechanics of how usage and allocation information is communicated between the entities involved, namely load settlement agents, meter data managers, electricity and natural gas utilities, the AESO and service providers. 

Rule 021 & 028