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Frontlines: Sticker Shock

Electricity rates may be heading skyward sooner than we think.

Even in regulated states, balancing shareholder interest against ratepayer interest is still more art than science. A fact that utilities will always dread, as long as there are rate cases.
Byline: 

Richard Stavros

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Technology Corridor: Bridging the Transmission Gap

A digital grid to the home, secured via a local fiber-optic network, could position utilities to fix power and telecom together.

Before billions are spent building new transmission lines to ensure reliable electric service, North American electric utilities should evaluate whether the alternatives — controlling demand and fostering distributed generation — might be more cost-effective and broadly beneficial.
Byline: 

Steven R. Rivkin

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NERC's Cloudy Crystal Ball

How much confidence do NERC demand forecasts warrant?

NERC’s forecasts for peak demand growth have consistently underestimated actual levels of growth. How does that affect projections for new construction?
Byline: 

Tom Replogle

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The Reliability Spending Conundrum

What is the right and prudent level of spending on service?

Utilities and regulators who want to determine the right level of spending on service quality should employ three tests: trending, benchmarking, and modeling.
Byline: 

Daniel O'Neill

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The Road Not Taken

Revisiting performance-based rates with endogenous market designs.

Have regulators selected the wrong market design in their restructurings during the past two decades?
Byline: 

Francis J. Cronin and Stephen A. Motluk

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Retail Risk-Based Pricing

A new approach to rate design.

Customers with greater risk require greater working capital set-asides to address anomalous or unexpected events.
Byline: 

Gary Dorris and Sean Burrows

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Back to the Ratebase

Utilities are absorbing distressed IPPs, and raising alarm bells in the process.

In 2003, just over 1.4 GW of unregulated generating capacity was converted into rate-based assets. At least another 5.6 GW will be converted soon. What supply procurement practices are appropriate in today’s power market?
Byline: 

Michael T. Burr

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Electric Reliability: The Merger Solution

Can economies of scale make the industry more stable?

Utility mergers create exceptional efficiencies, yielding average cost savings of approximately 5 to 10 percent of the combined company’s non-fuel operating expenses. These substantial untapped cost efficiencies could be harvested through more merger-friendly state regulatory policies that would enable utilities to retain these merger cost savings so long as a significant portion was channeled toward infrastructure investment.
Byline: 

George W. Bilicic And Ian C. Connor

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