Distribution Companies: For Most, What Else Is There?

1
Distribution Companies For Most, What Else Is
There?

• Rob Sargent
• National Association of State PIRGs

2
Consumer Principles for the Electric System

• Preserve universal access to safe, reliable,
  affordable electricity.
• Public interest must guide all regulatory
  decisions.
• Market mechanisms should only be employed when
  they benefit the public interest and must be
  backstopped by regulation.
• Increasing conservation, efficiency and renewable
  energy are vital to a healthy electric system and
  consistent with the public interest.
• Decisions with regard to the electric system
  should be made at the level of government most
  accessible and responsive to the public.

3
Where Are We Now?

• System in Limbo Caught between two worlds.
• Electric industry restructuring has led to few
  benefits for the majority of consumers and most
  of those are transitory
• Average consumption has risen while support for
  efficiency programs has declined since the early
  90s.
• Avoided rate cases have caused deferred
  investments and will cost consumers and
  reliability.

4
Regulators?

• Many have forgotten role.
• Regulate consistent with the public interest and
  just and reasonable rates.
• Markets does not equal least cost
• Look at the bigger picture (not just the supply
  and transmission side) and plan.

5
Where Do We Go From Here?

• Accept that retail competition is an experiment
  that hasnt worked.
• Recognize that least cost full system planning
  which prioritizes conservation, efficiency and
  clean renewable energy is in the best interest of
  everyone (but the generators).
• Demand that the Feds take their job seriously
  (reliability, just and reasonable rates, market
  power)