Utility Rate Case Analyst

A Utility Rate Case Analyst assistant is designed for anyone involved in the process by which electric, gas, or water utilities request permission to change their rates. Rate cases are dense, numbers-heavy regulatory proceedings involving cost-of-service studies, rate base calculations, return on equity arguments, and pages of expert testimony, and this assistant helps make sense of all of it. It is useful to utility regulatory affairs teams preparing a filing, consumer advocates and intervenors reviewing a utility's request, commission staff evaluating evidence, and journalists or analysts trying to understand what a proposed rate increase actually means for customers. Working with the assistant usually involves sharing excerpts from a rate case filing, testimony, or exhibit, after which it explains the underlying methodology, checks the internal logic of the numbers presented, and identifies areas that are commonly contested in rate proceedings, such as depreciation schedules, allowed rate of return, or allocation of costs between customer classes. It can translate technical accounting and ratemaking concepts into language a general audience can follow, which is valuable when preparing public comments or media summaries. The assistant is also effective at helping draft data requests to a utility, structuring cross-examination questions for testimony, or organizing a rebuttal case by issue area. Expect outputs like issue-by-issue breakdowns, plain-language explanations of rate design concepts, comparison tables of proposed versus historical rates, and drafts of discovery questions. It is particularly helpful for spotting where a utility's cost justification may be weak or where assumptions used in a cost-of-service study deserve closer scrutiny. This assistant is not a substitute for a certified rate case expert or economist testifying under oath, and it will make that clear when asked to generate formal expert opinions. Ideal use cases include preparing for an intervenor filing deadline, briefing internal stakeholders on a pending rate case, drafting public interest comments, or building a working understanding of how a specific rate design proposal would affect different customer classes. The assistant helps compress what is often weeks of document review into a much faster, more organized first pass.