Expanding and upgrading America’s critical energy infrastructure—while ensuring reliability and affordability for customers—has never been more important for our industry. That’s why I was so encouraged to see the warm reception to the findings of a new Critical Consumer Issues Forum (CCIF) report during July’s National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Summer Policy Summit in West Palm Beach, Fla.

The report, Exploring Rate Design and Other Regulatory Tools: Maximizing Grid Benefits and the Customer Experience, builds on a consensus principle that CCIF participants identified in 2023: More focus should go into developing cost-based rate design structures that can help mitigate upward pressure on customer bills while maximizing the value of grid assets. The report is the result of months of CCIF engagement with electric companies, state regulatory commissions, andcustomer advocate groups, who worked together to develop a thoughtful framework for exploring efficient rate design and customer pricing options amid a complicated regulatory landscape.

As a member of CCIF’s executive committee, I am proud of the constructive dialogues and diverse group of stakeholders that contributed to the report, which will help all of us build a solid foundation for positive regulatory outcomes. During an EEI-sponsored breakfast and subsequent panel discussions at NARUC’s fourday summer policy summit, weshared the findings of the report, including ten consensus principles that we hope will guide discussion around costbased rate design moving forward.

Some of these principles, such as developing a sense of urgency around using innovative rate design tools to address issues around affordability and long-term costs for electric companies, are more technical in nature, dealing with the very foundations of rate design. Others, such as strategically promoting and rewarding customer behavior changes as they relate to energy use, focus on community and customer engagement efforts, ensuring that customers understand and can benefit from innovative rate solutions.

These principles should be considered less of a step-by-step roadmap and more of an establishment of common ground shared by electric companies, state commissions, customer advocates, and other relevant stakeholders. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for rate design, and an array of options and regulatory and policy tools should be considered in rate discussions happening across the country.

Our industry is governed by the laws of physics. Balancing energy supply and demand, transferring energy throughout our service areas to balance peaks and fill troughs, is at the heart of our industry. Innovative rate design structures can help ensure affordability for customers while allowing America’s investor-owned electric companies to make the most of the grid of today while proactively building and preparing for the grid of tomorrow.

There are no shortage of challenges for electric companies and state regulators. Once-in-a-generation demand growth is reshaping near- and long-term grid planning, and increasing threats from wildfires and extreme weather events threaten our nation’s critical energy infrastructure.

We should think about innovative and forward-thinking rate design structures in the same way that we think about the technologies in these command centers—as indispensable tools that help us serve our customers reliably and affordably. 

When rate design complements demand-response initiatives, distributed energy resources, and energy efficiency programs that make the most of the infrastructure that we currently have in place, we all benefit.

The road to a resilient clean energy future is not one that we can walk alone, and the latest CCIF report is a testament to the progress that can be achieved by working together with an array of relevant stakeholders. By engaging early with regulators and customer-advocate groups—and ensuring customers can be actively informed and engaged in their energy usage—we can address the challenges and benefit from the opportunities that lay before us, together.

Phil Moeller is executive vice president, regulatory affairs and international programs at the Edison Electric Institute.

EEI and our member companies—America’s investor-owned electric companies—are committed to delivering resilient clean energy to the customers and communities we serve, without compromising reliability or affordability. And, while many of our customers are residential, we also power large swaths of the U.S. economy, serving a growing array of businesses and industries and ensuring they have the electricity they need to maintain their operations and support their own customers and employees.

As the U.S. economy increasingly electrifies, our industry has never been more important to the continued vitality of American business. Electric companies contribute at least $865 billion to U.S. gross domestic product (GDP)—or 5 percent of the country’s total economic output. EEI and our member companies know that we are the first 5 percent of U.S. GDP, supporting other sectors that increasingly are electrifying, like the transportation and industrial sectors. Electric companies sold more than 3.9 million gigawatt-hours of electricity to customers in 2022, up 2.8 percent over the year, according to data included in the latest edition of EEI’s Statistical Yearbook of the Electric Power Industry. Commercial and industrial customers collectively accounted for nearly 61 percent of that total.

By 2050, commercial and industrial demand is projected to grow by 12.7 percent and 16.4 percent, respectively. And, those figures exclude the transportation sector, which continues to rapidly electrify. The National Renewable Energy Lab estimates more than 180,000 EV fast charging ports will be needed to accommodate 33 million EVs on U.S. roads by 2030.

"As the U.S. economy increasingly electrifies, our industry has never been more important to the continued vitality of American business."

As the U.S. economy continues to electrify and digitize, EEI’s members are working with technology companies and other stakeholders to anticipate and meet their customers’ evolving needs, often through data collection and automated computing processes. Increasingly, our members also are working to support data centers that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimates consume 10 to 50 times the energy-per-square foot of a typical commercial office building. DOE projects data centers account for 2 percent of all electricity consumed in the United States—a number that is only expected to rise in the coming years.

To help support the growing demand for data and energy, EEI member companies are working with some of the nation’s largest employers to power their operations with resilient clean energy. They also are partnering with technology companies to supply data centers with renewable energy— helping to power their operations and meet their emission-reduction and sustainability goals.

As we continue our work with large corporations and technology companies, we also are prioritizing America’s small and diverse businesses to ensure they share in the benefits of a resilient clean energy future. Many of our member companies maintain programs and resources that directly benefit small businesses, helping them save money and become more energy efficient.

Our customers have long served as our industry’s North Star, and we must continue to ensure that residential, commercial, and industrial customers are top of mind. Businesses large and small—and, by extension, their employees and customers—are depending on America’s electric companies to power their operations. And, as electricity demand climbs in the years and decades to come, our industry’s role as a growth engine will be vital to the overall health of the U.S. economy.

Phil Moeller is executive vice president, regulatory affairs and international programs at the Edison Electric Institute.