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Rates and rules for regulated services are established through regulatory proceedings that are designed to give all interested parties a fair opportunity to state their opinions and present supporting facts. Regulatory proceedings include:
- Rulemakings: Proceedings held to establish new rules by which regulated entities conduct business.
- Rate cases: Proceedings that establish the rates a utility can charge for its services.
- Certificate cases: Proceedings that approve construction of new facilities.
- Complaint cases: Proceedings that evaluate complaints filed against utilities.
- Applications: Proceedings to consider a request from the utility to change a rule or rate that can be part of an above proceeding or can be a stand-alone request.
- Advice filing: An abbreviated process to consider a utility application for approval of tariff changes in response to a previous decision or some other minor request to change tariffs.
The following illustrates the general process used by regulators in the U.S. to set rates and rules for regulated services. Each regulator, however, may define this process in its own fashion.