rooftop

Good Ratemaking is Hard to Do

Especially in today’s politically charged environment

Trying to use ratemaking to address an increasing number of social issues intensifies the difficulty for regulators to reach a balanced outcome. Net metering stands out as economically inefficient, unfair and a regressive cross-subsidy, essentially an implicit tax on non-solar customers.

Here Comes the Sun

Growing Impacts of Residential Solar on Utility Customer Service

What does PV mean for utilities’ residential customer service operations? From helping customers with supplier selection, through installation and maintenance issues? And with billing? To begin to address this question, we conducted two sets of surveys of residential electricity customers in the second quarter of 2016.

Ratemaking and the Campaign Against Rooftop Solar

Rate design should balance consumer and investor interests.

Regulators should ensure that changes to rate design seek to balance consumer and utility interests. Rates that are intended to insulate utilities from economic and technological change while providing no benefits to consumers ought to be considered unjust, unreasonable, and unduly discriminatory.

The Consumer-Centric Utility

Empowering Consumers while Managing Risk and Optimizing Assets

Electric utilities do not simply sell a commodity. They sell safe, affordable, reliable and clean electric service. The “Consumer-Centric Utility” business model provides a viable framework for utilities while enabling new products and services that meet growing consumer expectations.

Tale of Two Grids

What a review of PUC cases tells us about the future of consumer technology and grid modernization.

There may be a more fundamental schism that raises fundamental questions about the role of the distribution utility and footprint of the natural monopoly.

Just Ducky

If you provide free storage and distribution services, too much will be used, and costs for everyone else will go through the roof(top).

The neck of the Duck Curve gets longer every year due to California’s energy policies.

Response to Brown Re: Net Metering

A response to the letter to the editor by Ashley Brown in our February 2016 issue.

Is rooftop solar more like an independent power producer, subject to societal regulation and policy, such as wholesale-level regulation or retail-level resource planning? Or is the electricity that is produced a private consumer good, immune from regulation, policy, and planning?

Improving Performance in Publicly Owned Utilities

Consistently setting, measuring, and updating quantitative performance metrics should be a central feature of any program.

Modern performance-management practices can – and should – be applied to public and private utilities alike.