Busting myths: Investor-owned distribution utility performance can be credibly benchmarked

This article examines the use of publicly-available financial and operating data to benchmark distribution performance of U.S. IOUs. The authors describe a methodology addressing characteristics beyond IOU control commonly held to impact performance. Econometric analyses refute many commonly-held beliefs about the influence of various characteristics on various performance measures, and support other beliefs only weakly. The authors then apply appropriate adjustments quantified through regression analyses to create a distribution business performance ranking of U.S. IOUs.