Power quality in regulation of distribution companies — A Finnish case

The economic regulation of distribution companies in Finland is applied as a rate of return regulation. The Energy Market Authority in Finland has developed a new regulatory framework that has been in operation from the beginning of year 2005. At present, power quality has only a minor role in this new regulatory framework and has no effect on the rate of return regulation. The Energy Market Authority has plans for including the power quality more intensively in to the regulation framework and also to include it into the rate of return regulation. Some possibilities to take power quality into account in regulation from the regulator´s point of view are discussed in this paper.