Information & Perspective by Warren Woodward
(May 22, 2015)
This is what it’s like to have real utility regulation.
Duke Energy wanted to raise rates in Indiana in order to install $1.9 billion worth of “smart” meters and related paraphernalia. The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission denied Duke Energy saying:
“In the absence of any sufficient evidence to support Duke’s cost estimates, even for the first-year projects in the T&D Plan, we cannot find that the estimated costs are the best estimate of the costs of the eligible improvements as required by Ind. Code § 8-1-39-10. It is not enough for Duke, or even [engineering consultants] Black & Veatch, to simply assure us that the costs estimates are reasonable or best estimates. Duke must estimate its costs with a sufficient level of accuracy and supply evidence to allow the other parties and the Commission to conduct their own independent analysis of the estimated costs.”