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Scott Engstrom is chief commercial officer at GridX, where he works with utilities on rate design, modeling and complex billing implementation.
Imagine if a utility could design a new dynamic rate on a Monday, assess its impact across every customer in the service territory the next day, and have it live on customer bills two months later. This is the pace at which utility billing needs to work because the rates, programs, and business models that will deliver affordability and demand flexibility can’t wait two to three years for the billing system to catch up.
Rate design used to be straightforward: collect enough revenue to cover costs and provide a return on capital. A once-in-a-generation surge in load growth, combined with continued investment in renewable generation, has changed what utilities and regulators ask of rates. They are increasingly a behavioral tool — a way to send price signals that shift consumption, reward flexibility, and protect affordability. The result is a rate portfolio that looks nothing like the one most billing systems were designed for: time-of-use pricing, critical peak pricing, demand charges, export compensation, EV-specific rates, and customer-specific riders.
