Regulatory Agility

Utility grids in the United States are at an inflection point, and equipping regulators to be more agile can help ensure we are prepared for the future.

State public utilities commissions (PUCs) are critical for ensuring the health and economic vitality of households and businesses across the country. State PUCs have historically been tasked with ensuring access to safe, reliable, and affordable energy services. Now, they face new and more complex responsibilities due to shifting economics, aging and fragile infrastructure, and new customer demands for cleaner and more transparent service. Although PUCs are uniquely positioned to orchestrate an equitable transition to meet these emerging needs, their institutional structures, processes, and staffing — all essential to PUC modernization — have struggled to keep pace.Our new research builds on three RMI insight briefs on PUC modernization that provide strategies and recommendations to support PUCs in effectively regulating today’s evolving energy system. The insight briefs cover PUCs’ purpose, people, and processes as PUCs take on an expanding role while still meeting their historic mandate of ensuring safety, reliability, and affordability.

This fourth insight brief details specific actions PUCs can take to be more agile. It highlights three focus areas:

• Build culture, systems, and workforce to advance agility;
• Refine docket processes to improve responsiveness and flexibility;
• Engage stakeholders early, inclusively, and accessibly.

These focus areas emphasize actions that can be taken while largely operating within the constraints posed by legislation, staffing, and budgets. Deeper reforms to address these constraints are referenced in the insight briefs earlier in the series.

Agility can better equip PUCs to continue their critical work in support of the public interest while navigating the increasing complexities and workload of energy regulation.