Mike Bloomberg

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Mike Bloomberg

Mike Bloomberg

@BloombergME

I work on better utility regulation at The Future of Heat Initiative.

เข้าร่วม Haziran 2011
4.8K กำลังติดตาม2.1K ผู้ติดตาม
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Mike Bloomberg
Mike Bloomberg@BloombergME·
For the Energy academics still on here. FoHI has $10k grants for academic-led research that bolsters public utility regulation (broadly defined). Link to grant info is here: thefutureofheat.com/grants -- it includes eligibility criteria plus some suggested topics. Please share!
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Mike Bloomberg
Mike Bloomberg@BloombergME·
@kchan55 @duncancampbell ^ there's no financial incentive to have higher debt rates. That + the fact that the debt market is very transparent. Not a dumb Q, but the bigger issue is debt/equity ratio.
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Kent Chandler
Kent Chandler@kchan55·
@duncancampbell I cared some, but like O&M (which I also cared about, but not as much as capital spending or equity cost) higher than necessary debt rates take up bill headroom, and thus impacts utilities’ ability to maximize returns through additional investment. They should want it lower.
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Duncan S. Campbell
Duncan S. Campbell@duncancampbell·
I have an ignorant question. Why do we trust utilities to find the best debt they can when we acknowledge all they care about is using less debt and increasing regulated equity return? Or does this just not matter much?
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Mike Bloomberg@BloombergME

1) Utility ROE's are too high 2) This increases rates 3) It creates a feedback loop that encourages more CapEx that regulators struggle to determine the prudency of. Addressing high ROE's is not easy. Thats what the latest post on #BasedRates is about. basedrates.substack.com/p/the-circle-g…

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Douglas Farrar
Douglas Farrar@DouglasLFarrar·
How does your utility set its profit target? By looking at what other utilities earn. How do regulators approve it? By looking at what other regulators allowed. This is called "the circle game." And it's a big reason your utility bills are so high. Here is how it works...
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Mike Bloomberg
Mike Bloomberg@BloombergME·
1) Utility ROE's are too high 2) This increases rates 3) It creates a feedback loop that encourages more CapEx that regulators struggle to determine the prudency of. Addressing high ROE's is not easy. Thats what the latest post on #BasedRates is about. basedrates.substack.com/p/the-circle-g…
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Mike Bloomberg
Mike Bloomberg@BloombergME·
@mattyglesias @sdamico Not as underrated as the act of concentrating our national economy in a handful of very high cost cities.
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Mike Bloomberg
Mike Bloomberg@BloombergME·
@JaneAFlegal I responded because high ROEs are key driver of Dx capex bias. From finance lens, the goal is to try track rate increases at 1-2% above inflation, no more or you get backlash. And they've been pushing it lately. When you add supply constraints you get a crisis. And here we are.
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Mike Bloomberg
Mike Bloomberg@BloombergME·
@JaneAFlegal I'm not suggesting we can! I really liked your SL piece. And I think we need a whole host of solutions. And not to sound too corny, but I think the biggest capacity problem is state capacity.
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Jane Flegal
Jane Flegal@JaneAFlegal·
I think the utility ROE discussion is mostly not relevant to energy affordability, and potentially damaging. We have a scarcity problem. The way to lower prices is to build more supply and to get social programs off of bills.
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Mike Bloomberg
Mike Bloomberg@BloombergME·
@JaneAFlegal >> How much of this is a PJM frame vs. national? >> Capacity scarcity isn't the story for gas Dx. >> Across the country rate base inflation has raised the price floor so any capacity stress is landing on top of that.
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Jane Flegal
Jane Flegal@JaneAFlegal·
@BloombergME I’m not even arguing there isn’t/hasn’t been gold-plating. I just think it’s very clear that the major cost driver is lack of capacity and I’m not sure why this would be anyone’s priority in light of that.
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Mike Bloomberg
Mike Bloomberg@BloombergME·
@JaneAFlegal All I’m suggesting that ROE’s are too high, that high ROEs do have a significant impact on Dx rates by further incentivizing CapEx bias. We’ll put something out next week on potential remedies for addressing.
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Xiao Wang
Xiao Wang@xiaowang1984·
@BloombergME So the public paying for transmission for clean energy to offset a 3c a kwh energy from a CCGT is ok but having a share of a cost for a datacenter whose product will literally be used by everyone is not
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Mike Bloomberg
Mike Bloomberg@BloombergME·
@JaneAFlegal Respectfully -- i think youre still in the Tx mindset. I'm not suggesting a cap, which would likely get tossed in court anyway. Prudency review exists but is toothless and utilities write the capital plans. 10% on $5B is a lot more than 10% on $2B. That's the incentive.
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Jane Flegal
Jane Flegal@JaneAFlegal·
@BloombergME And I think capping ROE makes it worse bc you end up deferring needed investment. ROE isn’t just cost recovery, it’s the signal that attracts private capital. To the extent it matters it is marginal and you coukd end up w a real underinvestment problem.
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EnergyAbe
EnergyAbe@AbeEnergy·
Excited to be growing my team working on energy issues at Hopkins! Multiple post-doc and research scientist opportunities, working on resource adequacy/capacity markets, data centers, “clean-firm” resources & more! More info & apply here: lnkd.in/egmBDZuc
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Mike Bloomberg
Mike Bloomberg@BloombergME·
The results: 4x increase in CapEx, 2x increase in bills, 0 statistically significant improvements to gas system safety.
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Mike Bloomberg
Mike Bloomberg@BloombergME·
Youd be forgiven for thinking utility rates are set through rigorous rate cases. For gas bills, that's increasingly false. The majority of what we pay is now determined by 'trackers' reviewed in as little as 30 days with little/no scrutiny. Our latest: basedrates.substack.com/p/debased-rate…
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Mike Bloomberg
Mike Bloomberg@BloombergME·
@johnarnold Okay but it's not scalable. Akin to having the casino in your county. You can't (and shouldn't) build a casino everywhere.
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John Arnold
John Arnold@johnarnold·
Compare Loudoun with adjacent Fairfax County, which has not seen a similar buildout or the corresponding drop in property tax rates.
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John Arnold
John Arnold@johnarnold·
The data center buildout has allowed Loudoun County to lower property tax rates by 38% since 2010, translating to average savings of about $3,400 per year for homeowners.
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Xiao Wang
Xiao Wang@xiaowang1984·
Hey man much respect for y'all competing on ERCOT at wholesale. If you guys make enough of a return here and can lower prices enough to get a sustainable business that starts as a niche and expands as you get more value on dx then more power to ya. Ill reserve my snark for those that try to force their PUCs hands with this
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Chase Dowling
Chase Dowling@cpatdowling·
Yo @xiaowang1984 how many MW before it's not just hype?
Base Power@basepowerco

We’re excited to announce a new agreement with @CoServ, deploying 100 MW of residential battery storage across their North Texas service territory. The program is Base’s largest collaboration to date and one of the largest distributed residential energy storage programs led by a Texas electric cooperative. This marks Base’s fifth utility collaboration in Texas, building on a proven model for rapidly bringing new capacity online.

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Travis Fisher
Travis Fisher@ts_fisher·
@SimonMahan Fine, I’ll take the deep dive into state level rate cases and do the itemized analysis Can I get a grant?
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Simon Mahan
Simon Mahan@SimonMahan·
I get it: data centers will use a huge amount of power. But they aren't, yet. So why are electric bills spiking? It's got to be something already inherent in the status quo, not future customers in 5 years....hmmmm
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