Rory Christian of EDF has written about using performance-based ratemaking “+” (PBR+) in New York’s Reforming the Energy Vision proceeding. EDF, in taking an important step for an environmental advocate, recognizes the importance of providing the right economic incentives for market participants to achieve environmental goals. Prescriptive solutions too often are misguided and inflexible leading to failure and high costs.

That said, PBR+ may not be the best solution (and I don’t have the immediate answer to this question.) PBR hasn’t had a great track record in California. Diablo Canyon suffered from excessive costs that led to the push for restructuring. The competitive transition charge (CTC) opened the door for market manipulation. And the CPUC couldn’t say “no” when it awarded incentives for questionable energy efficiency gains. Other jurisdictions have had mixed results. Mechanism design is critically important to make PBR work.

Taking a step back from specific policy proposals, an important perspective to consider is that the “regulated utility” is not the same as “utility shareholders.” Shareholders are the true stakeholders in the discussion about the new utility business model. (Utility managers may hijack that role but that probably is not a sustainable position.) So we should be looking outside the box of standard regulatory tools, even PBRs, and ask “how else can utility shareholders see value from the electricity industry outside of their regulated utility affiliate?” There are potential models for alternative approaches that might ease the political and economic transition to the new energy future.

Chuck Goldman at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab made a presentation on the various business model options that are available. The Energy Services Utility (ESU) is an option that deserves greater exploration, particularly in concert with a distributed system operator (DSO). An ESU might provide a model for utility holding company shareholders to participate. But the devil could be in the details.