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This column has appeared in these pages since 1982. Here, as before, it offers a summary of results from major retail rate case decisions involving large investor-owned utilities, as issued [...]

Last year in this column we highlighted several cases in which regulators had weighed in on whether to view low interest rates as a cyclic trend already anticipated by rate-making [...]

By the term 'anomaly,' we don't mean 'Armageddon.' With the government shutdown recently lifted as this issue was going to press, we offer no prediction on how the continued sense [...]

Fortnightly's annual rate case survey is designed to give readers a look at rates of return on equity (ROE) awarded in state-level retail base rate proceedings for electric and natural [...]

A look at the rate cases in this year's survey suggests that regulators have some degree of confidence that the worst effects of the financial crisis might be subsiding and [...]

A review of electric and natural gas rate cases decided over the past 12 months shows state utility regulators struggling to balance the interests of ratepayers and investors in an [...]

A review of the rate cases decided over the past year indicates that the economy remains at the forefront in the news, and on the minds of regulators in rate-case [...]

Recent shocking and unprecedented news in financial markets brings to mind several questions about utility rate cases and authorized returns. Given that utility regulators rely on financial models when seeking [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A new trend has evolved in utility rate cases. In the past year, state utility regulators have begun tailoring return-on-equity (ROE) rate allowance to encourage utilities to build [...]

The results of Public Utilities Fortnightly's annual survey of rates of return on equity (ROE) authorized for major electric and natural-gas utilities broadly show a continuing decline in the level [...]

The results of Public Utilities Fortnightly's annual survey of rates of return on equity authorized for major electric and natural-gas utilities--based on a sample of the retail rate cases conducted [...]

Fixing an appropriate rate of return on equity (ROE) for electric utility investors marks a fundamental component of the typical cost-of-service rate case conducted across the nation by state public [...]

With most restructuring efforts at a standstill in the energy industry, state public utility commissions (PUCs) have tended to shift their attention back to the art and science of ratemaking. [...]

State PUCs will surely weigh in on the latest move by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to work its will on the nation's electric transmission grid. In this case, [...]

No matter which way they turn, state public utility commissions (PUCs) have their work cut out for them. While federal policy-makers push ahead with wholesale market reforms in the electricity [...]

WITH INTEREST RATES AT RECORD LOWS, IT IS not surprising to find downward pressure on allowances for return on equity (ROE) set by state public utility commissions in retail rate [...]

THE RESULTS OF OUR ANNUAL SURVEY OF authorized rates of return on common equity for state-regulated energy utilities show a continued reliance on traditional cost-of-service ratemaking in many states. At [...]

Whether you call it "deregulation" or "re-regulation," the promised move to competition does not mean less regulation--at least not any time soon. State public utility commissions appear willing to experiment [...]

PUC endorses direct access, plant divestiture and limits on recovery of stranded costs. Says order will not interfere with 1990 bankruptcy plan for Northeast Utilities. The New Hampshire Public Utilities [...]

High industrial electricity rates are often blamed upon current regulation. Some state regulators respond with broad-based reforms; others simply reallocate system costs from industrial rate classes to rates for more [...]

According to the Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition--a national organization of local natural gas distributors, pipelines, and equipment manufacturers promoting natural gas vehicles (NGVs)--the U.S. government supports our country's continued reliance [...]

We begin the new year with a recap of the major rulings issued last year by state public utility commissions (PUCs). Electricity took center stage as state commissioners began in [...]

The utility industry is developing a new type of market that represents something quite different from anything we have seen in the past. Led by the gas pipeline industry (not [...]

After hearing for a number of years about the inevitable arrival of retail wheeling in the electric industry, we are getting our first inklings of what might actually happen. California [...]

Public utilities regulators need to protect both rate payers and stockholders from the effects of industry diversification. Utility companies are responding to increased industry competitiveness by diversifying their businesses. Regulators are wary of diversification because they want to protect rate payers from having to pay for failed ventures that are not central to the utility's line of business. However, diversification is essential to survive in an atmosphere of deregulation, and inhibitive regulations would prevent shareholders from achieving a reasonable return on their investment., Corporate diversification by public utility companies emerged as a topic of concern in the late 1980s when the economy slowed and a substantial share of their investments failed to produce [...]

Regulations passed in 1993 affecting public utilities are surveyed. Issues highlighted from the regulations surveyed include retail rate swapping, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Order 636, tariff reforms for local gas distribution companies, gas storage services for local distribution companies, transition costs resulting from deregulation under Order 636, the environment, conservation, integrated resource planning and regulatory reform.

The Nov 1, 1993 implementation of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Order 636 brings about the first phase of the natural gas industry's deregulation. Local distribution companies (LDCs) and public utilities companies are still grappling with questions such as rates, reliability of supply, access to pipeline capacity rights and the costs of transition. LDCs worry about being able to forecast their gas supply and not having a reliable contingent should their calculations be off. LDCs are also concerned with incurring a disproportionate share of the transition burden., The November 1 deadline for implementation of natural gas industry restructuring under FERC Order 636 is here. As the energy industry knows all too well, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [...]

According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), worldwide purchases of advanced clean-coal technology could rise to $24 billion per year, creating up to 80,000 new jobs in the United [...]

Title VII of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (the Act) introduces a new entity to the world of electric generating capacity: electric wholesale generators (EWGs). The EWGs are free [...]

The California Public Utilities Commission last November denied a request by the state's largest electric utilities to increase ratemaking equity ratios to account for alleged financial risk associated with significant [...]

State regulators have struggled with the issue of cogeneration for 15 years, ever since President Carter first announced his national energy plan in 1977. In a nationwide television address the [...]

Access to the nation's privately owned electric transmission grid has taken a front seat in a number of high profile regulatory proceedings. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has included [...]

If you are looking for a risk-free wager, take any utility rate case, and bet that the parties will argue over rate of return on common equity (ROE). But the [...]

1991 -- The Year in Review It can take more effort than you might think to coax the free market to work. A look at the last year shows that [...]

Regulators have long debated the appropriate rate treatment for gain earned by public utilities on the sale of nondepreciable property, namely real estate. Recently, changes in environmental regulations at the [...]

The past year was a phenomenal one for state public utility regulators. A historical confluence of events, including the catastrophic failure of the move to deregulate California electric markets and [...]

On the last day of 1997, a U.S. district court in Texas struck down sections of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that prevent former Bell System operating companies (BOCs) from [...]

Performance-based ratemaking (PBR) departs from the cost-of-service standard in setting just and reasonable utility rates, but that departure isn't as easy as it looks. Up until now, cost-of-service ratemaking has [...]

Who will pay the costs incurred by regulated utility companies as they shift to competitive markets under plans engineered at the federal and state levels? This question is part of [...]

How risky are utility investments today? Regulators have always faced this question when setting the return component of rates under traditional rate base/rate of return regulation. With major industry restructuring [...]

Much attention has been paid to revolutionary rate-reform plans advanced to meet perceived competition in energy markets. So much, in fact, that the increasing popularity of the special discount rate [...]

While state utility regulators remain committed to conservation as one resource option among many for electric utilities, recent cases show a trend toward caution in implementing new demand-side management (DSM) [...]

After months of a well-publicized boardroom fight, Dominion Resources Inc. (DRI) has settled its dispute with Virginia Electric and Power Co. (Virginia Power), its principal utility subsidiary. The agreement, billed [...]

Activists for reform of public utility rates are focussing on the automatic adjustment clause. The Public Utilities Commission of Colorado is seeking comments on reform either to abolish, reconstruct or retain electric cost adjustment clauses for utilities. Incentive mechanisms are another alternative to the clause, and Michigan and California have adopted those. However, the clause may be used for recovery of new costs such as environmental compliance, as was done in Florida., The propriety of the automatic pass-through of certain types of costs without a formal rate hearing, while always an issue for debate among theorists, has taken a more practical tone [...]

Many state regulators rely on mandatory contract-bidding for electric power transmission as a means of assuring least-cost compliance. Furthermore, they feel such competitiveness will benefit the nonutility generator (NUG) industry. However, mandating such bidding in an already discounted market can cost rather than save money in the long term and can skew competition in favor of already strong NUGs. Long-term contracting in a buyer's market can expose a utility to long-term operating cost increases if supplies or other economic factors should change., With stable fuel prices and slow growth in demand, a buyer's market reigns in some places for electricity. Surprisingly, state regulators are struggling to bring the benefits to ratepayers. Some [...]

Regulators must allow utilities to earn enough profit to attract capital. And because utilities are capital intensive, the issue of the appropriate allowance for return on common equity (ROE) is [...]