Naruc Gas Distribution Rate Design Manual
The Brattle Group advises utilities and government agencies on the proper design of regulated rates in the electricity and natural gas industries. Our experts testify on rate structure and rate design matters before state regulatory commissions and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).Recent advances in customer-side technologies and the ongoing rollout of advanced metering infrastructure are causing many in the industry to rethink rate design. Brattle has worked with a diverse range of international clients to design, test, and implement new rates to satisfy the ratemaking objectives of an evolving power grid. We prepare expert testimony and studies addressing electric retail ratemaking issues, such as automatic adjustment clauses, cost allocation, marginal cost of service, economic development rates, and performance-based ratemaking. We also provide consulting on incentives for energy efficiency programs, real-time pricing, interruptible demand tariffs, and other rate mechanisms designed to encourage greater demand response to changing wholesale prices. Department of Energy (DOE), Brattle experts authored a whitepaper on methods for unbundling and pricing distribution services in an environment of high distributed energy resources (DER) market penetration. The report identified the various services that are provided by the utility to DER customers, the discrete services provided by DER customers to the utility, and various frameworks for packaging and pricing these services.
Naruc Gas Distribution Rate Design Manual Free
The report included an assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of each pricing framework from the perspective of both the utility and its customers. For a large utility, Brattle experts provided analysis and testimony in support of the utility’s proposal to offer new rate choices to its residential customers. In addition to the standard rate, the utility proposed to offer two new rate options: a rate with an increased fixed charge and a lower volumetric charge, and a three-part rate with a demand charge. Our work included bill impact analysis on the cost and risk shifting from the new structures across different types of customers within the same rate class, simulations of the likely adoption, and revenue impacts of the various rate options.