"Energy service is capital-intensive. The wires and poles, generators of transformers, pipelines and compressors of the labor and equipment required to put that capital into service are expensive. Customers don't pay for the cost of everything upfront, because many grid assets have a lifespan of 40 to 50 years. They can be financed. Utility companies can obtain and deploy capital to build these assets and recover the costs over time for customers. For customers, this financing means the cost of our universal service is spread out over time, but that time also adds an additional cost: the cost of the capital of the debt and equity used to fund the infrastructure built out up front, and that additional cost is the subject of this proposed decision."
