Regulatory Affairs/Expert Testimony
Gabel Associates draws on its refined analytic capabilities and experience accumulated over decades of work in the public and commercial arenas to provide expert testimony and help clients with regulatory issues.
Gabel Associates’ experts have testified in dozens of electricity, natural gas, and water utility proceedings on revenue requirements, cost of service, tariff design, and policy issues. They have appeared before legislative committees on a wide range of energy policy issues. The firm’s policy and ratemaking experience is supported by commercial experience in the development of hundreds of energy projects and transactions. Our analysis captures commercial realities so our recommendations are achievable, measured, and principled.
Gabel Associates’ two principals, Steven Gabel and Robert Chilton, each have over 35 years of experience in the energy industry and testify as experts on utility ratemaking and policy matters at state commissions and at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Mr. Gabel served as Director of the Electric Division at the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) for many years. Mr. Chilton was a long-time Director of Energy at NJBPU. Both Mr. Gabel and Chilton continue providing expertise on utility ratemaking and policy matters and have been responsible for reviewing or testifying with respect to every aspect of public utility rate cases.
Richard Preiss, Vice President of Gabel Associates, also has over 40 years of experience in the electric utility industry. He served as Director of Rates and in related capacities at JCP&L/GPU/FirstEnergy for over twenty years. He has an extensive background in utility regulation and rate strategy. Mr. Preiss has served as an expert witness on revenue requirements and tariff design in utility rate cases and in rate unbundling, stranded cost, restructuring, and basic generation proceedings.
Firm personnel serve as expert witnesses on a wide range of issues at FERC and at State Commissions, including those related to ratemaking and tariff design, energy and capacity markets, reactive rates, interconnection, renewable energy, energy efficiency, electric vehicles, and mergers/acquisitions. The following highlights some of the firm’s expert activity:
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- Expert testimony and advocacy work on diverse energy issues in various states including New Jersey, West Virginia, Virginia, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, District of Columbia, Louisiana, Arizona, Oklahoma, Colorado, as well as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
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- Gabel Associates provided expert testimony to FERC which provided one of the few detailed analyses of the cost impact of the U.S. Department of Energy’s coal/nuclear Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Proceeding related to grid reliability and resiliency pricing.
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- The firm was directly involved in the legislative and regulatory processes, and conducted analysis, with respect to New Jersey’s Long Term Capacity Agreement Pilot Program (LCAPP) legislation that resulted in three long term capacity contracts.
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- Working on behalf of The Alliance for Solar Choice (TASC) and Delaware Sustainable Energy Utility as an expert in rate and merger cases, Gabel Associates has testified relative to, and achieved, positive adjustments to ratemaking, improvements to the interconnection process, and the clarification of treatment of solar and storage in various jurisdictions.
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- Firm principals have testified on a wide range of matters as the Lead Consultant for the Independent Energy Producers of New Jersey (IEPNJ), a not-for-profit trade organization that represents wholesale power generators. This has included testimony on the Exelon-Pepco merger, the annual Basic Generation Service (BGS) proceedings, natural gas discount matters, and other issues that impact the generation industry. The firm was also instrumental in the development of New Jersey’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the nation’s first regional cap-and-trade program.
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- Robert Chilton prepared an expert affidavit before the FERC related to capacity market issues in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), which analyzed the basis of capacity prices resulting from the MISO auction.
Mr. Gabel and Mr. Chilton have long been involved in all phases of the restructuring of the energy industry, including New Jersey’s 1999 deregulation law (the Electric Discount and Energy Competition Act – EDECA), and in the formation and ongoing operations of PJM Interconnection, the largest regional transmission organization (RTO) in the country.
At the time of EDECA’s passage, Mr. Chilton was Director of Energy at the NJBPU and was the lead staff person in its development. He was responsible for all electric utility rate cases related to the unbundling of utility assets and rates into functional components (distribution, transmission and generation), and for the development of New Jersey’s provider-of-last-resort policies and processes. Steven Gabel was also a direct participant in this effort.
Gabel Associates helped facilitate the development of the New Jersey Offshore Wind Economic Development Act (OWEDA) that was signed into law in August 2010. The law encourages the development of offshore wind projects by providing a fair and reasonable project development process.
Gabel Associates helped design the offshore wind renewable energy certificate (OREC) program, which established purchase requirements for offshore wind energy. The firm also designed the first-of-its-kind pricing and financing structure for the development of an offshore wind project, the OREC Pricing Plan. Gabel Associates is one of the only firms to have presented expert testimony in the key areas of an offshore wind project including cost/benefit analysis, rate impact analysis, and merit order impacts.