A Strategic Framework for Utility Cost Control

RMI proposes a strategic framework to mitigate rising utility costs driven by infrastructure spending, fossil fuel reliance, and outdated regulatory incentives. The framework offers seven core strategies—ranging from improved planning and coordinated gas-electric regulation to leveraging competition and lowering financing costs—to ensure grid reliability and customer affordability.

• Rising utility costs are driven by several factors, including increased transmission and distribution (T&D) infrastructure spending, a reliance on natural gas for power generation, the impact of wildfires and extreme weather, and slow technological adoption. These issues are worsened by traditional regulatory frameworks that create incentives opposing cost control.
• RMI's cost-control framework consists of seven strategies: improving planning to anticipate needs at the lowest cost, coordinating electric and gas regulation to avoid redundancy, lowering financing costs, rewarding utilities for cost-efficiencies, using competition to find the lowest prices, prioritizing least-cost solutions to avoid inefficient expansion, and improving fuel management to mitigate fossil fuel price volatility.

APA

RMI (2025). A Strategic Framework for Utility Cost Control. https://rmi.org/resources/a-strategic-framework-for-utility-cost-control/

Chicago

RMI. A Strategic Framework for Utility Cost Control. 2025. https://rmi.org/resources/a-strategic-framework-for-utility-cost-control/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=A Strategic Framework for Utility Cost Control |date=19 February 2025 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/a-strategic-framework-for-utility-cost-control/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2025strategic, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{A Strategic Framework for Utility Cost Control}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2025}, month = feb, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/a-strategic-framework-for-utility-cost-control/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }