For utility regulators, struggle to reach fair pandemic cost recovery unfolds

摘要

As emergency COVID-19 orders begin to roll off, current and former utility regulators said the challenge of balancing the interests of ratepayers and utilities will be substantial and unprecedented. Utility commissions across the nation will soon shift from implementing consumer protections such as moratoriums on service shutoffs to determining how they should allow utilities to recover coronavirus-related costs. Those cost recovery mechanisms stand to either alleviate or exacerbate financial hardship for customers and utilities alike, depending on their design and a host of other factors, according to regulators. “From a personal perspective as a regulator, I’m struggling to make every effort to try to be fair, just and reasonable as we deal with the uncertainty that this crisis brings to the table,” Paul Kjellander, president of the Idaho Public Utilities Commission, said during a June 24 webinar co-hosted by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. The most significant concern for Kjellander is a year-to-date surge in past-due bill accounts among Idaho’s four major utilities totaling $6.5 million, a 50% increase over the same period in 2019. While regulators will make every effort to avoid disconnections when they lift a ban on service shut-offs, utilities will never be able to collect some delinquent accounts, Kjellander said.