Alaska State Legislature

The COSR “retrospective” analysis fails to consider long term benefits available to new technologies, Rabago emailed Utility Dive. The system cannot be optimized with an IRP analysis that disadvantages new DERs and other new technologies. Better analytics and modeling can include the benefits and costs of resources on the distribution system in the IRP analysis, Aggarwal said. The final revenue requirement includes a percentage of the utility’s proposed capital expenditures as a rate of return for shareholders whose investments provide the utility with operating capital. The new approach begins by identifying what utility customers want and then uses a stakeholder-based regulatory forum to create opportunities for utilities to earn money by meeting those demands. The disadvantage is furthered if the https://heplerbroom.com/blog/wotus-and-pm-naaqs-and-pfas-oh-my-environmental-highlights-in-first-quarter-2023 new technologies are customer-owned, not offering return-on-investment opportunities for utilities.

In most cases, these goals include a specific target year by which a certain percentage of the state’s energy production must come from renewable energy sources. In deregulated states, the PUC not only controls what the energy producer charges to suppliers for electricity, but it also controls the maximum prices and contract terms offered to consumers. Individual electric companies still set their own prices to some degree, but all pricing is subject to approval by the PUC. This site receives compensation from the companies featured in this listing, which may impact where and how products appear. In response to the need for regulation, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) was started. Since 1977, the process of energy deregulation has been underway, and with it came an energy choice for consumers and increased competition between electric suppliers.

These typically include no-cost or low-cost measures that will provide savings quickly as well as capital measures that have a longer payback. Utility incentives may be available to offset costs for these types of projects. The capacity charge may be a separate line item, or it might be included in one of the other charges. Bills include energy (kWh) or demand (kW) charges, as well as ancillary charges such as support for Energy https://dnews7.com/kiev-shipping-ltd-has-been-the-best-break-bulk-cargo-brokers-since-2000.html Efficiency Programs and coverage of distribution losses.

North Carolina’s Duke Energy Asks for Higher Rates—and Profits

• Stir that all together and you have a situation in which, when monopoly utilities ask for a rate increase, they usually receive it, or at the very least are not told by regulators that they actually need to do more with less in order to save ratepayers money.
• Bicycle Friendly Businesses include local businesses, government agencies, and Fortune 500 companies across the United…
• “Is it better than cost of service? People thought it would simplify ratemaking, but there are all those metrics. The debate continues.”
• That will increase a typical bill by up to $30 per month, the utility says.

The Public Utility Division staff (PUD staff) of the Corporation Commission has 120 days from the date of filing to complete its examination of the application package.21This 120-day examination period is essentially the discovery phase and includes the exchange of data requests and responses between the utility and PUD staff, as well as the filing of testimony responsive to the application package by PUD staff.22The utility also has the opportunity to file rebuttal testimony.23 Once a public utility has filed an application package seeking a rate increase, it is required to make a “good faith” effort to serve notice of the rate case on all affected utility customers.19 Notice of any hearing on the application must also be published “once a week for two (2) consecutive weeks at least fifteen (15) days prior to hearing in a newspaper of general circulation published in each county in which are located utility customers affected thereby, unless the Commission directs otherwise.”20 The Louisiana Public Service Commission receives public comments during monthly Business and Executive Sessions, if an open docket is on the agenda. “It’s difficult to make sense of the Commission’s decision to rush a vote on a hotly contested issue that will affect so many people’s lives and wallets,” Paul Arbaje, a senior analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement after the August decision. At the time, Phillip May, Entergy Louisiana’s CEO, published a statement calling Meta’s move to Louisiana “a game-changer for our state” and “a big win for our customers.” CR reached out to the company for comment but did not receive a response. Before the vote, commissioner Eric Skrmetta said that the Commission could “easily move this matter through within eight months” and that he thinks “the public will be easily protected on this.” He didn’t respond to CR’s request for comment.

These spikes have put many people in the impossible situation of deciding whether to pay to keep their lights on or to pay for other essentials like food, medicine, and transportation. The trick, Ackermann said, is http://www.wtfmacos.ru/c/Utilities.html to balance wide-ranging goals with the desire to capture the political outrage over high bills. The company, he said, has proposed ideas that would streamline the ratemaking process, such as multiyear cases that would make projections further into the future and reduce the number of proceedings. “It is disingenuous for outside groups and other stakeholders not to acknowledge that EEI and our member companies are prioritizing the interests of customers while leading the clean energy transition,” Riel said.

“The stakeholders and the utility have been working on the PBR concept for years and understand the utility revenue model and where we’re going,” she said. Hawaii is demonstrating one way forward by working with stakeholders to clearly articulate performance goals, Aggarwal said. In response to customer demand and to flattening and uncertain load growth, the utility business model is already evolving, Aggarwal wrote May 7 in Forbes. If utilities are rewarded with incentives for that, they will look for and find the low-cost opportunities in solicitations and the new DER technology options.

RMI Electricity Practice Principal Leia Guccione said power system stakeholders are now saying they want to move to a performance-based regulatory structure but they don’t yet know how to do it. Bigger questions will have to be answered about “the utility of the future and what its core business is and how revenue and earnings can come from a different business model,” Cross-Call said. The rate case is still the venue for the financial decisions and customer rate setting, but through the iterations of solicitations and deployments, that is likely to change. As new DER technologies allow customers to provide more services to the grid, the “underlying core business of the utility will need to be reconsidered,” Cross-Call said. Initially, the solicitations will reveal the new capabilities and values of new technologies. “But putting it in rates creates needless complications and subsidies. That’s just how the process works. Regulators approve the cost of those incentives in procedures outside of the ratemaking process.”

• About 2 million households in the Phoenix and Tucson areas are facing 13 to 14 percent rate increase proposals by their utilities, Arizona Public Service (APS) and Tucson Electric Power Company (TEP).
• “We have real concerns, we have real questions to ask, because people are already in an affordability crisis and a reliability crisis.”
• In response to customer demand and to flattening and uncertain load growth, the utility business model is already evolving, Aggarwal wrote May 7 in Forbes.
• Local conditions and state decisions are driving the increase in average national electricity rates.

What Is the Public Utilities Commission & What’s Its Purpose?

One in five people reported having been late on at least one utility bill in 2023, and even in parts of the country where other costs are easing, utility costs continue to climb. That reality has turned into a potent political issue, as shown by the recent election results in which high cost of living clearly motivated voters to hit the polls. Despite the rate of inflation having eased in recent months, costs are still considerably higher than they were just a few years ago. Bicycle Friendly Businesses include local businesses, government agencies, and Fortune 500 companies across the United… Many mitigation strategies are available, but the topic is complex, and an effective response must be tailored to each facility’s unique needs and objectives. Similarly, retro-commissioning (also called existing building commissioning) is a process that identifies, implements, and verifies short-payback measures and quick fixes that have a direct impact on day-to-day operations, with a focus on energy savings.

TEP’s “average monthly residential bill fell from about $146 in 2024 to $140 last year, a drop of about 4 percent,” company spokesperson Joseph Barrios said in an email. About 2 million households in the Phoenix and Tucson areas are facing 13 to 14 percent rate increase proposals by their utilities, Arizona Public Service (APS) and Tucson Electric Power Company (TEP). So while the December energy expansion decision included a three-year freeze on what customers pay for every kilowatt-hour of energy they use, customers could still see price hikes stemming from fuel costs and storm damage. Georgia Power has raised prices six times since 2023, increasing residential bills an average total of $43 per month, SELC calculates.