WCPSC Annual Meeting
Moderator Jennifer Potter is a Commissioner at the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission. Ann Rendahl is a Commissioner at the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission. Megan Gilman is a Commissioner at the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. Megan Decker is Chair of the Oregon Public Utility Commission.
The Western Conference of Public Service Commissioners 2021 Online Annual Meeting met June 7 to 8 in cyberspace, grappling with tough subjects as regulation advances in the face of a pandemic, weather events, and the road to decarbonization.
Regulation is changing with the times as evidenced by this all female panel, who looked into the move away from traditional rate-base, rate of return regulation. Questions raised included what regulatory initiatives are Commissions undertaking to improve utility performance? What incentives work best in many situations including to align utilities' interests with public policies? How to keep ratepayer costs down, of course was part of the discussion. Listen in to memorable moments.
Moderator and Commissioner, Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, Jennifer Potter: Aloha and good morning. I'd like to begin by giving background on how we've evolved through the last decade, if not two, to looking at regulatory innovation and how as Commissions, we can do our jobs better to serve the public, but also to help ensure the financial integrity of the utilities we regulate.
Hawaii started out on performance-based ratemaking about ten years ago. It began with decoupling and a multi-year rate plan. We looked at the attrition relief mechanism, all efforts to address the changes consumers were making in how they produced and consumed energy.