Rocky Mountain Institute briefed Virginia stakeholders on options, state case studies for performance-based regulation

Rocky Mountain Institute experts Janelle Wilson and Kara Goldenberg told a Virginia Department of Energy stakeholder work group that performance‑based regulation (PBR) can take many forms and offered U.S. state case studies to help Virginia evaluate options.

The presentation framed PBR as a toolbox rather than a single policy and distinguished incremental approaches — layering specific mechanisms onto traditional cost‑of‑service regulation — from comprehensive reform that restructures utility incentives more fundamentally. "PBR is not just one thing," Goldenberg said. "It's a collection of tools that can be used in many different ways." The presenters described a four‑pillar framework for comprehensive PBR: incentivize cost efficiency, remove the throughput incentive, equalize capital and operating incentives, and incentivize targeted outcomes.

Why this matters: Virginia stakeholders face a statutory process and an external deadline to prepare materials for the State Corporation Commission; the RMI briefing aimed to surface concrete tradeoffs and state examples so the stakeholder group can identify options to recommend.

RMI outlined specific regulatory tools tied to the four pillars.…