Energy Regulatory & Market Advisory
US electricity demand was flat for two decades and is now growing close to 2% a year, caused by electrification, new manufacturing, population shifts, and large computing loads. Utilities are answering with the largest capital programs in their history, and the cost is reaching customers: average residential power bills were up more than 7% year over year by spring 2026. Who pays for the new infrastructure gets decided proceeding by proceeding. In Nevada, NV Energy's resource plan projects 47% more demand than its previous plan, while its Greenlink transmission project grew from USD 2.5 billion to USD 4.2 billion, with most of the line's capacity committed to a few large customers. In Virginia, Dominion's January 2026 base rate increase added USD 11.24 a month for the average residential customer, and in May the governor signed a law (SB 253) directing the State Corporation Commission to assign more grid costs to large loads like data centers instead of spreading them across residential ratepayers. In July the SCC followed through in Dominion's transmission rider case, assigning direct-connect costs to data centers and cutting the residential impact from USD 2.90 to USD 0.94 a month.
For large energy users, developers, investors, and operators, we analyze what a tariff, a rate case, an interconnection position, or a resource plan means for project economics and what positions are available. For utilities, consumer advocates, institutions, and public bodies, we provide an independent account of cost allocation, load forecasts, program design, and merger review. Energy market shocks belong to the same picture: natural gas fuels about 40% of US electricity, so commodity price moves reach power bills through fuel cost adjustment clauses, sometimes within a billing cycle.
01
RATE CASE & COST ALLOCATION ANALYSIS
02
RESOURCE PLANNING & GRID CAPACITY REVIEW
03
ENERGY PROCUREMENT & COST EXPOSURE
04
INDEPENDENT RESEARCH & EXPERT INSIGHT
Utility ownership itself is being restructured around load growth. The deal sequence tells the story: Blackstone/TXNM at USD 11.5 billion, Constellation/Calpine at USD 26.6 billion, and now NextEra/Dominion at USD 66.8 billion, each decided by projected demand. What a merger or a tariff change means for a specific company or community is rarely on the surface of the filing, and regulators in states like New Mexico have shown they will scrutinize and block deals that don't hold up.
How We Work on Energy
Serving energy users, developers, investors, and public bodies across North America and Europe.
Energy costs and energy access are set in regulatory venues most companies never watch: rate cases, integrated resource plans, interconnection queues, and tariff dockets. We read those venues closely, and we turn what's in them into positions a client can act on. The same machinery runs in Europe: the European Commission puts needed grid investment at EUR 584 billion by 2030, and network charges in the UK and EU are where customers will meet that bill.
Rate Cases & Cost Allocation
We analyze rate filings, demand charges, special contracts, and economic development tariffs to show whether a customer class is funding someone else's infrastructure, and what intervention or negotiation can change. Arif's analysis of these questions has appeared in ConsumerAffairs on residential cost shifts and in POWER Magazine on how the NextEra/Dominion deal interacts with Virginia's new cost allocation law.
Resource Planning & Grid Capacity
Integrated resource planning is where regulatory risk for energy projects is produced or reduced. Arif's OGEL Energy Law Journal paper (April 2026) identifies the mechanisms: assumption framing, procedural bundling, and institutional instability, with Arizona and Nevada as the comparative cases and the March 2026 repeal of Arizona's Renewable Energy Standard as a live example. We use the same method for clients: stress-testing load forecasts, procurement structures, the modeling of alternatives, and the durability of the rules.
Procurement, Storage & Demand Flexibility
We work with the procurement (contract structure, pass-through terms) and the flexibility side (behind-the-meter resources, program participation). We keep track of how states are valuing distributed resources: Xcel Colorado's virtual power plant program left open questions on battery degradation and compensation, while Oregon and Washington's value-of-solar-and-storage studies put a price on resilience. The island of Ireland dispatched down 2.2 TWh of wind in 2024, much of which long-duration storage could have absorbed. Arif advises on the long-duration storage investment case.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a utility rate case, and why should it matter to us?
A rate case is the regulatory proceeding where a utility's revenue requirement and the allocation of costs across customer classes get set. If your power costs are material, the rate case is where they're decided, months before they appear on a bill. Large users can intervene or negotiate contracts; communities and advocates can contest allocation. Most affected parties find out after the order is final, and by then the options are gone.
How does load growth from large customers reach everyone else's bill?
Utilities file capital plans to serve projected loads, and those costs are spread across ratepayers according to allocation methods set in regulatory proceedings. When a transmission project's capacity is mostly committed to a few customers while its cost is socialized, residential and small commercial classes carry the difference. Virginia's 2026 cost-shift law, which sponsors estimated would have reduced residential bills by about USD 5.52 a month under its original provision, shows both the scale of the subsidy and the fact that legislatures are starting to act on it.
What does a resource plan review involve?
Reading an IRP the way an intervenor or investor should: are load forecasts defensible, are clean alternatives modeled honestly against incumbent resources, is procurement bundled in ways that limit competition, and do the assumptions survive water and fuel constraints the plan ignores? The answers determine project risk for developers and rate trajectories for everyone else.
Can you help with energy price shocks?
Yes, on the exposure side. We assess how commodity moves reach a client through tariff structure and fuel adjustment mechanisms, and which combination of contract terms, behind-the-meter generation, storage, and program participation reduces the exposure. The 2026 fuel spike moved diesel 46% and pushed airline, agriculture, food, and freight costs within weeks; companies on variable commercial tariffs felt it almost immediately, while those with fixed contracts or on-site generation were insulated.
Start With Your Exposure
An Energy Exposure Diagnostic is a two-week engagement: we screen your tariff position, pending rate cases and resource plans in your service territories, your contract terms, and your program options, then deliver a prioritized workplan.
Led by Arif Gasilov, partner for Natural Resources and Built Environment.