In the past few years utilities and their regulators have come to realize that the current regulatory system financially rewards utilities that sell more electricity and penalizes those that sell less. Thus, the current regulatory system discourages utilities from pursuing energy-efficiency initiatives.
To address this problem, a variety of reforms have been introduced which propose to make the "least-cost plan" for meeting future electricity needs the "most-profit plan" for the utility.
This book brings together contributions by over 20 nationally recognized experts who are shaping regulatory incentives being proposed and implemented across the country. Seven chapters are devoted to detailed analyses of leading incentive mechanisms. Additional chapters discuss the rationales (pro and con) for regulatory incentives, the evolution of incentives, linkages to program evaluation, the impact of incentives on utilities, and the future direction of incentives.
