This paper explores possible responses to the fact that unregulated generation prices are higher than hoped and few consumers are using non-utility power suppliers. It identifies regulatory access points relative to demand-side management and energy efficiency that cross-cut the various restructurings of the electric industry across the US, while pointing out how cross-cutting elements of regulatory roles vary depending on the local situation. Four major categories of leverage points are addressed: planning, retail rate-making, environmental regulation, and funding.

Originally published in Pace Environmental Law Review 18, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 295-307.

This guide is for resource planners at national and sectoral levels; for businesses or agencies providing electricity services through generation, transmission, or distribution; regulators of electricity markets; and others interested in the structuring of policies, markets, and regulations affecting electricity. It provides the analytical framework and assessment methodologies needed to promote integrated resource planning in different economic, political, and geographic settings.

This review outlines the basic considerations involved in establishing incentives for demand-side management. Its purposes are to provide background material for assessing West Kootenay Power’s DSM incentive mechanism, explore modifications to that incentive structure, and record the final incentive for 2000 that was adopted based on discussions informed by an earlier draft of this report.