Understanding gas & electric utility rates and their relationship to utility profits doesn't have to be confusing.

Master the fundamentals of energy rate-making and learn the financial and accounting differences between regulated and unregulated businesses with this comprehensive course. This is a "must" seminar for anyone who is new to the utility industry or who is impacted by the utility rate-making process.

What You Will Learn

1. Plain English explanations of numerous gas & electric regulatory terms and concepts, and how the federal and state rate-making process works.
2. How gas & electric rate-making practices vary between investor owned utilities, municipal utilities, coops, and how these rate practices impact unregulated energy marketers.
3. The jargon used in the regulatory process, so that you can understand each step of a rate case.
4. Why utilities file rate cases and the types of analyses they conduct to support their proposals.
5. The difference between cost of service and market-based pricing, and how these rates are applied.
6. How various federal and state rate case procedures work, and how they differ.
7. What the different cost components of the base rate case are, and how they are determined.
8. The financial drivers for regulated utilities and how they differ from unregulated businesses
9. How to improve utility profitability through the rate-making process.
10. How different types of pricing structures are designed within rate proceedings

You Will Also Learn

1. The specifics of various natural gas and electric rate structures; how to read a tariff; and how to analyze a gas & electric bill.
2. What rate structures benefit customers and suppliers, and when.
3. How rate structures are designed and applied in deregulated environments.
4. How to calculate comparisons between regulated and deregulated supply procurement.

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Who Should Attend this Seminar

Utility analysts, utility employees involved in legal, accounting, regulatory, engineering, operations, customer service, sales, or marketing, Utility commission employees, industrial customers, commercial customers, Energy producers, utilities, electric generators, and marketers; energy and electric power executives; traders; marketing, sales, purchasing & risk management personnel; accountants; trading support staff; auditors; attorneys; government regulators; plant operators; engineers and corporate planners.

Prerequisites and Advance Preparation
This fundamental level group live seminar has no prerequisites. No advance preparation is required before the seminar.

Program Level
Basic level. This fundamental course begins with basic material and then proceeds to the intermediate level.

Delivery Method
Group-live.

Hotel and Seminar Information

This two-day seminar will be held at the hotels listed below. The seminar will start promptly at 8:00 AM and will finish at 4:00 PM on the first day. On the second day, the seminar will resume at 8:00 AM and will finish at 12:00 PM (noon). The program includes continental breakfast, lunch, for day one and a continental breakfast and coffee break for day two. Attendees also receive a professionally produced seminar manual that can serve as a valuable office reference. Dress is casual for all seminars

NYC Torch Club (NYU Campus)
18 Waverly Place
New York, NY 10003
View Seminar Location Website

Because of the diversity of hotels found in the area, we will not be holding a block of sleeping rooms with one particular hotel.

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Your Instructor

Jim Crist

Jim Crist is President of Lumen Group, Inc. headquartered in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. He has over 27 years experience in the energy industry covering coal, gas, oil, propane, and electricity. Jim has conducted many strategic studies of the industry and prepared market and business assessments for several large energy companies. Before founding Lumen Group in 1996, Jim spent 20 years working for major energy companies in engineering, technology development, rate and regulatory policy development and marketing. He served as marketing vice president in both regulated and deregulated entities. His consulting practice provides strategic planning, marketing and business development, and rate and regulatory consulting, along with serving as an expert witness in regulatory proceedings in several jurisdictions.

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Seminar Agenda

Day One (Morning - 4 hours):

• Conduct a thorough review of the gas & electric industries from a regulatory perspective.
• Discuss the major regulatory changes that created the energy marketplace of today.
• Review the fundamental concepts of gas & electric rates and rate-making in detail.
• Explain how rate base and rate of return are determined.
• Discuss how items are categorized as operating expenses or capital expenses.
• Explain the federal and state rate case processes involved for both base rate increases and fuel adjustments.
• Discuss the various rationales used to request changes in gas & electric rates.

Day One (Afternoon - 4 hours):

• Review the current problems encountered when implementing today's open-access markets and customer choice programs.
• Examine the important issues that create friction between utilities and energy marketers from both perspectives.
• Conduct a gas/electric case study exercise that addresses specific issues selected by the class.
• Debate the merits of significant issues contained within the case study using the active participation of class participants.

Day Two (4 hours):

• Interpret a variety of gas & electric tariffs to become proficient in bill analyses techniques.
• Conduct several bill analyses with both gas and electric bills for residential, commercial, and industrial customer groups.
• Illustrate the differences between various gas & electric rate tariffs using case studies of different bill applications.
• Apply case study results and lessons to real-life situations.
• Continue with the bill and tariff analysis using actual bill examples and situations selected from the class participants which have been submitted in advance.
• Review several additional examples of increasing rate-making complexity as time allows.
• Produce comparative analysis of bundled and unbundled rates using current electric and gas pricing examples.
• Illustrate how the economics of rate design is applied in competitive energy markets.