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Keeping Electricity Affordable – Balancing Reliability, Resilience, and Cost in a High-Growth Era
Keeping Electricity Affordable – Balancing Reliability, Resilience, and Cost in a High-Growth Era
While there is broad consensus on the critical need for affordable electricity, utilities recognize that retail power prices are unlikely to decline in the coming decade. The realistic goal is to maintain electricity as approximately 1–2% of household disposable income for residential customers, with increases below the rate of inflation, even as major investments are made in reliability, resilience, and grid modernization.
• Innovative pilots and programs aimed at driving costs out of operations and maintenance (O&M).
• Reducing office and field labor costs through productivity improvements, process optimization, and workforce strategies.
• Enhancing personnel and customer safety while lowering insurance premiums and liability exposure through greater system resilience.
• Deployment of emerging technologies that simultaneously improve performance and reduce long-term costs.
• Advancements in design and construction standards engineered to address the natural and human challenges of the 21st century.
• Creative approaches to valuing and communicating the benefits of reliability and resilience to stakeholders and regulators in an affordability-constrained environment.
