Walk me through your background + utility regulatory experience.

What it tests: Story arc - training + utility-finance / regulatory career + rate-case + filings exposure (WHY: regulatory hiring screens hard for whether someone has actually sat through a rate case, not just studied one).

Tell me about a rate case or regulatory filing you've worked on.

What it tests: Substantive ownership of a filing - revenue requirement build, testimony, discovery, settlement / hearing, outcome (WHY: separates candidates who supported a filing from those who owned a workstream).

Why regulatory + rates vs other utility paths (planning, operations, finance, M&A)?

What it tests: Authentic alignment - regulatory-compact instinct, evidence-driven rigor, stakeholder fit, multi-year-cadence patience.

Why the utility side - vs PUC staff, consumer advocate, or consulting?

What it tests: Specificity. Each vantage on ratemaking is different - utility advocates the filing, staff tests it, advocate cross-examines, consulting advises any of them. Generic answers fail.

What it tests: Real homework - jurisdiction, recent GRC, capital plan, regulatory frontier exposure - not name-drop.

What's your read on our last general rate case + pending dockets?

What it tests: Industry literacy - last GRC outcome, requested vs approved, pending dockets, capital plan recovery.

Tell me what you understand about our regulatory frontier - decoupling, PBR, performance metrics.

What it tests: Regulatory frontier fluency on this firm's specific mechanisms (WHY: separates candidates who track the industry from those just doing the day-to-day).

Walk me through how you'd build a revenue requirement for a general rate case.

What it tests: Rate-case mechanics - rate base + ROR + O&M + depreciation + taxes; test year choice; CWIP + AFUDC; rate base adjustments.

Regulatory Rates interview prep.

Rate case managers, regulatory analysts, cost-of-service + rate design specialists, regulatory affairs + filings leads at vertically-integrated utilities + T&D utilities + transmission owners + ISO / RTO members.

What interviewers look for

Can the candidate build a revenue requirement from rate base + ROR + O&M + depreciation + taxes - and defend each component under cross-examination?
Do they understand the regulatory compact - prudent investment + reasonable opportunity to earn + duty to serve - and how it shapes every rate case argument?
Are they fluent in class cost-of-service (functionalisation / classification / allocation) + rate design tradeoffs across customer classes?
Can they distinguish FERC (transmission + wholesale) from state PUC (distribution + retail) jurisdiction and walk the right process for each?
Do they handle stakeholder dynamics - PUC staff, consumer advocate, large customers, environmental intervenors - and structure settlements?
Are they current on the regulatory frontier - decoupling, PBR, formula rates, securitisation, IRP, performance metrics, ESG-linked riders?
Long-game fit - analyst / senior analyst / rate case manager / director of regulatory affairs / chief regulatory officer trajectory?

Behavioural questions to expect

Walk me through your background + utility regulatory experience.
What it tests: Story arc - training + utility-finance / regulatory career + rate-case + filings exposure (WHY: regulatory hiring screens hard for whether someone has actually sat through a rate case, not just studied one).
Tell me about a rate case or regulatory filing you've worked on.
What it tests: Substantive ownership of a filing - revenue requirement build, testimony, discovery, settlement / hearing, outcome (WHY: separates candidates who supported a filing from those who owned a workstream).
Why regulatory + rates vs other utility paths (planning, operations, finance, M&A)?
What it tests: Authentic alignment - regulatory-compact instinct, evidence-driven rigor, stakeholder fit, multi-year-cadence patience.
Why the utility side - vs PUC staff, consumer advocate, or consulting?
What it tests: Specificity. Each vantage on ratemaking is different - utility advocates the filing, staff tests it, advocate cross-examines, consulting advises any of them. Generic answers fail.
Why this firm?
What it tests: Real homework - jurisdiction, recent GRC, capital plan, regulatory frontier exposure - not name-drop.
What's your read on our last general rate case + pending dockets?
What it tests: Industry literacy - last GRC outcome, requested vs approved, pending dockets, capital plan recovery.
Tell me what you understand about our regulatory frontier - decoupling, PBR, performance metrics.
What it tests: Regulatory frontier fluency on this firm's specific mechanisms (WHY: separates candidates who track the industry from those just doing the day-to-day).
Walk me through how you'd build a revenue requirement for a general rate case.
What it tests: Rate-case mechanics - rate base + ROR + O&M + depreciation + taxes; test year choice; CWIP + AFUDC; rate base adjustments.

Technical concepts to master

Rate base + ROR + ROE

Rate base + prudence: Investor-supplied capital on which the utility is allowed to earn a return - plant in service less accumulated depreciation, plus working capital, less ADIT.
CWIP vs AFUDC: CWIP in rate base = earn a current return on construction work in progress; AFUDC = capitalise an allowance for funds used during construction, recovered after in-service.
Capital structure + double leverage: Equity / preferred / debt ratios used to weight the cost-of-capital - hypothetical vs actual; consolidated vs operating company.
ROE methodologies - DCF + CAPM + risk premium: DCF = dividend yield + growth; CAPM = risk-free + beta x equity risk premium; risk premium = bond yield + premium; expected earnings = ROE of proxy group.

Class cost-of-service + rate design

Functionalisation: Assign costs to function - production, transmission, distribution, customer service, A&G.
Classification: Within each function, classify as demand-related, energy-related, or customer-related.
Allocation methods: Apply allocators - demand (12CP, NCP, A&E), energy (kWh), customer (count + weighting) - to spread costs to classes.
Parity ratios + gradualism: Class parity ratio = class revenue / class cost-of-service - identifies over- + under-recovering classes; gradualism limits per-case shifts (often 1.0-1.5x system average).

FERC vs state jurisdiction + formula rates

Jurisdictional split: Federal Power Act = FERC jurisdiction over interstate transmission + wholesale sales; state PUCs over distribution + retail rates.
Formula rate vs stated rate: Formula rate = template that recalculates rates annually using updated inputs; stated rate = fixed dollar amount until next case.
Order 1000 + 890: Order 890 = open + non-discriminatory transmission planning; Order 1000 = regional + interregional planning + cost allocation for transmission projects.
Transmission incentives + Order 679: FERC may grant adders to ROE (RTO membership, abandoned plant), CWIP, accelerated depreciation, hypothetical capital structure for qualifying transmission.

Regulatory frontier - decoupling + PBR + riders + IRP

Revenue decoupling: Mechanism that adjusts rates between cases to true up actual to authorised revenue - breaks utility revenues from kWh sales.
Performance-Based Ratemaking (PBR): Multi-year rate plans with revenue caps + performance metrics + symmetrical earnings sharing.
Riders + adjustment clauses: Single-issue recovery mechanisms between general rate cases - fuel, capex tracker, storm, securitisation, DSM, electrification.
Integrated Resource Plan (IRP): Long-range plan for meeting load with portfolio of resources (generation, storage, DR, EE, DER) - filed with PUC every 2-4 years typical.

Practical drills

A vertically-integrated utility files a GRC with rate base of $4.0B, requested capital structure 50% equity / 50% debt, ROE 10.0%, cost of debt 4.5%, O&M of $350M, depreciation of $200M, amortisations of $30M, taxes of $180M, other revenues of $80M, and present-rate revenues of $1.05B. Build the revenue requirement + revenue deficiency.
A utility has revenue requirement of $1.0B. Three classes: residential (4.5B kWh, 1.2M customers, NCP 1.8 GW), commercial (3.0B kWh, 150k customers, NCP 1.0 GW), industrial (2.5B kWh, 5k customers, NCP 0.8 GW). Class allocations from a 12CP demand / kWh energy / weighted-customer study come back: residential cost-of-service $480M, commercial $310M, industrial $210M. Current revenues: residential $510M, commercial $290M, industrial $200M. Walk through class parity + rate design.
Your utility has filed a $150M GRC with 10.25% ROE, $2.0B incremental rate base, a grid-mod tracker, and a new electrification tariff. PUC staff proposes $90M with 9.5% ROE. Consumer advocate proposes $60M with 9.25% ROE + opposes the tracker. Large-industrial group proposes class-shift toward residential. Environmental intervenors support electrification but want performance metrics tied to it. Walk through your settlement strategy.

Smart-question anchors

Last GRC outcome + pending dockets - requested vs approved, ROE, rate base treatment
Capital plan + recovery strategy - test year, riders, formula rates, securitisation
Regulatory frontier - decoupling, PBR, multi-year rate plans, performance metrics
Stakeholder map + culture - PUC staff posture, consumer advocate, large customers, environmental
IRP + CPCN + resource adequacy - capacity needs, renewable + storage build, retirement schedules

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