Pricing

“If we define unaffordability as when households with limited means and assets encounter a confluence of bill spikes and other adversities that compel them to miss payments and forego necessities, then data from all directions are informing us that there is indeed a crisis.”

“Without clear guidance, the very consumers who stand to benefit most from an energy transition risk being left behind. A national energy education initiative can bridge this gap, providing the trusted knowledge households and businesses need to make informed energy decisions.”

“This method of using the least expensive pigments to establish the foundation of a painting before applying the more costly and necessary color was a lesson that carried forward and informed my role as a state utility regulator.”

“The choice of cost allocation method is both a key factor in shaping outcomes and an exercise in judgment. No single standard defines what makes one approach reasonable and another flawed.”

Households with the highest electric bills percentage have far less income on average, are generally older and have fewer earners, and are more likely to be headed by a female, to be headed by a black individual, and to reside in rural America.

In part three, we consider institutional consequences if indifference to ratepayer impacts takes root in FERC and federal agencies or in state legislatures and with regulators. How these play out could affect policy sustainability and effectiveness as net-zero goals for 2050 grow nearer.

“Learning what works and what doesn’t work early in the transfor­mation will help separate success from failure, and maintain affordable energy.”

There is a better way to implement the Buy All-Sell All model. Instead of setting VoS rates based on speculative forecasts, why not just pay prices that reflect the actual, contemporaneous value of the solar energy? Why not, effectively, buy the solar energy by the minute?

We describe the strategies being adopted by the Global Top 40 utilities and the positioning moves they are pursuing.

How to price electricity when the grid goes 100 percent green.