Electricity Marginal Costs and Rate Design in a Changing Utility Environment provides in-depth discussions about the importance of marginal cost-of-service analysis in a future of increasing distributed electricity resources (DERs), e.g., distributed generation (DG), demand response, behind-the-meter storage, and electric vehicles. The right combination of rate design reforms, regulatory approaches, and organizational structures can lead to an economically-efficient expansion of DER. By reforming residential and commercial rates so that they more closely mimic the structure of marginal costs, utilities can take full advantage of advanced metering and communications while preventing uneconomic bypasses of the utility system and reducing cross-subsidy concerns. The instructors will explain the process for designing cost-reflective, multi-part rate structures in both bundled, full-service tariffs and unbundled delivery charges in restructured states, involving Time-Of-Use (TOU) rates, and smart-meter-enabled pricing options that will provide better incentives for demand response and expansion of DG. The discussion of pricing mechanisms will also cover Value-Of-Solar (VOS) rates and other emerging value-based methods for pricing customers with rooftop solar generation. Finally, the instructors will incorporate real-life examples of innovative rate designs, as well as methods for allocating the utility revenue requirement to customer classes that rely on marginal cost information. Students will have many opportunities to practice these methods during group exercises.

Class size will be limited in order to facilitate group participation. We encourage you to reserve your space today.

If you have any questions about the course or the registration process, please contact Karen Brown at karen.brown@nera.com or +1 213 346 3045.