Accounting & Depreciation

Local Financing Benefits U.S. Utilities

Banks, Utilities Find Natural Fit

Local banks are still an under-utilized resource for electric utilities, despite the role these banks played historically. Regional and local banks are often healthier than big banks, according to the Federal Reserve.

Rethinking Rate Design

Berkeley Lab’s Discussion with Five Experts

Five of our industry's top thought leaders weigh in on the white-hot controversy of rate design as utilities and regulators plot a course for electricity's future.

Nice Work If You Can Get It

Rate of Return for Fun and Profit

If you want actionable intelligence up front, here it is: invest in regulated utilities. There is mounting evidence that investment in utility stocks has outperformed the broader market in the past, and will continue to do so.

Equity Returns: ‘Allowed’ vs. Earned

Understanding how PUC rate case findings differ from a utility’s financial reports.

 

(November 2015) Setting an allowed return on equity has consistently proven to be the most contentious and subjective part of a rate case proceeding.

Managing Assets is Not Asset Management

The real thing demands a culture shift toward long-range thinking.

Rather, it involves a culture shift: towards a broader view to encompass such business processes as life-cycle planning, performance analysis, and the entire value chain.

Wind Power Subsidies

Today, tomorrow, forever?

NREL contradicts AWEA, finds wind power not competitive, and favors extending the production tax credit (PTC), but that won’t aid economic growth.

Modernizing with Trackers

Time-tested cost recovery mechanisms provide stable funding for infrastructure replacement.

Automatic tracker surcharges provide timely cost recovery for multi-year utility system improvement programs.

Dodd-Frank and Electric Utilities

Understanding the new mosaic of commodities trading regulations.

Compliance with Dodd-Frank might not be as complicated as feared; however, companies must be vigilant in order to maintain the relevant exemptions.

All You Need to Know

Picturing utilities in a series of sobering snapshots.

Utilities are growing rate base despite static or declining demand: making customers pay more for a product they want less of.

Letters to the Editor (July 2012)

(July 2012) Thanks for your enlightening editorial about the problems of feed-in tariffs for photovoltaic installations and the distortions they are causing in cost responsibilities among electric utility customers. While these issues are an immediate and growing concern, an entirely different set of problems will emerge over the next decade as the share of renewables in total generation approaches the high levels being dictated by most regulatory authorities.