Duke Energy
Lon Huber is Duke Energy senior vice president of pricing and customer solutions. Jonathan Byrd is Duke Energy managing director, rate design and regulatory solutions.
Precedented. While every other article on large loads this year is likely to include the same word introduced by the prefix “un,” Duke Energy believes that the long-standing paradigms and tools for effective electric utility pricing are still relevant, remain (mostly) up to the task of dealing with the dynamic risks surrounding large loads, and bring a long history of successful precedents. In the new environment, there are well-established and well-tested tools that remain useful along with appropriate considerations for adjustments.
First, a word on objectives. Utility pricing and rate designs seek to align prices with cost causation, a core principle of ratemaking that is clearly the objective of the surge in large load rate schedules across the country. The opportunity is clear; economic flourishing and energy security for the country and communities we serve.
The challenge is two-sided: How to deal with costs to serve large loads that fail to show up as large or as soon as anticipated, or actually do show up and require meaningful incremental investments to serve?