On June 19, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (the Commission) issued Opinion No. 531,[1] which affirmed in part and denied in part an initial decision[2] on the return on equity (ROE) for the public utility transmission-owning members of ISO New England (ISO-NE). In addition, the Commission announced a modification to its policies regarding ROE calculation for electric utilities.
Opinion No. 531 tentatively determined that the “just and reasonable base ROE” for the ISO-NE transmission owners would be 10.57%, which is halfway between the midpoint and the maximum point of a “zone of reasonableness” based on a range of cost-of-equity estimates. The Commission determined that the base ROE should be set above the midpoint because of the unusual capital market conditions and other indicators, including a review of state-approved ROEs, which demonstrate that simply setting the base ROE at the midpoint of the zone of reasonableness would be insufficient to attract capital for new investment in transmission.