Episode 20: Cost‑Plus Regulation (also known as Rate‑of‑Return Regulation), Power Industry and High Rand Officer Love!
Welcome back to Bakuro-cho.
Under the Cost‑Plus Regulation (also known as Rate‑of‑Return Regulation), electric utilities are allowed to earn a fixed percentage of their total capital investment as profit. As solar and wind power expand, their unstable output requires more backup from thermal power plants — and these backup plants operate at low efficiency. Because utilities earn more when they build more infrastructure, inefficiency becomes profitable. The more expensive the system becomes, the more money utilities — and the bureaucrats who later descend into them — can extract. The bigger we build, the more we can take.
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