rate base

American  

noun

1. a guaranteed minimum amount or number used to compute advertising rates, as the number of subscribers to a publication.

2. a basic amount or number used to compute charges to a customer, as the number of monthly phone calls.

3. the valuation of property upon which tax rates are based.

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Example Sentences

When a plant is kept online after replacement assets are already in the rate base, customers effectively pay twice—once for the new plant, and again for the old one.

From Barron's • Jan. 14, 2026

For National Fuel, the addition of the Ohio business is expected to add significant regulated scale, doubling the company’s gas utility rate base while expanding into the neighboring state of Ohio.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 21, 2025

The amount it would pay, however, is capped on the size of the reimbursement relative to the size of their rate base.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 15, 2025

The rate base of the assets proposed to be transferred is about $3.5 billion, which is about 7% of PG&E's total rate base.

From Reuters • Sep. 28, 2022

The rate base would be ascertained as a fact, not determined as a matter of opinion.

From The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation Annotations of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States to June 30, 1952 by Corwin, Edward Samuel