One of my eclectic responsibilities is to establish an Average System Cost of energy resources for each investor-owned utility in the Pacific Northwest. (An exercise necessary to calculate a subsidy paid by public-power & co-op customers of the federal hydro system to share the benefits of that resource under something called the Residential Exchange Program)
The latest @bonnevillepower turn of this methodology asks our stakeholders for their views on interesting questions including-->
* the appropriate ROE for a hypothetical "generation-only" utility (without transmission risk)
* a reasonable materiality standard for damages/insurance before those costs bear closer scrutiny
* an appropriate way to estimate forward energy costs in a backwardated market
These questions are being asked in the context of a bespoke proceeding but of course they weigh heavily on the big policy issues of the day. Comments welcome -- and if you are really interested, pop into our stakeholder meeting this Friday