This is a difficult task at best because of the complexities and uncertainties involved. Definition of strandable costs After reviewing various definitions of strandable costs, we believe that Strandable Costs are those costs representing prudent investment in generation or associated regulatory assets made by a utility and funded by its investors, which have not yet been fully recovered, where because of a change in state policy, the shareholder's prior reasonable expectation of recovery may not be met. Stranded Costs are those strandable costs left unrecovered when and if consumers leave the regulated system. Each method has strengths and weaknesses. Accurate determination of Strandable Costs difficult because of need for assumptions and forecasts.
Results are highly sensitive to changes of assumptions.
Useful to compare results for several methods and look for convergence of results. The only estimate showing positive strandable costs is PacifiCorp's estimate. As indicated earlier, these estimates are highly sensitive to the assumptions used. Verifying what assumptions are valid and reasonable for a very uncertain regulatory future will be a difficult and technically complex task. Our review of other states with electric restructuring legislation indicates that the utility Commissions have been assigned the job of determining the amount of the stranded costs and if any, how they are to be recovered.