A 15-member delegation from Bosnia-Herzegovina met with the Georgia Public Service Commission last week to study how U.S. utilities measure and calculate its costs and how regulatory authorities set their rates.
The stop in Atlanta was part of a four-week trip for the delegation in Washington, D.C. and the Southeast. Bosnia-Herzegovina plans to restructure its electric operations from a state-subsidized system to a cost-based systems.
The national power company, Electroprivreda, has enormous challenges in transitioning form a centrally planned economy to a market-based system. Prior to the war in Bosnia-Herzegovinia, the state-owned industry subsidized much of the costs incurred by residential customers which kept rates artificially low.
“The delegation seemed genuinely interested in how we set rates and the status of electric competition in Georgia,” said PSC Chairman Stan Wise. “But they seemed most interested in our election process, an integral part of democracy we take for granted.”
PSC members are elected statewide to staggered six-year terms.