rate base

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.

Example Sentences

"We have this rate base that's investable at a higher return than those local distribution companies offer in terms of incremental returns ... that kind of lower return doesn't make a whole lot of sense for us," Armstrong said at the Barclays CEO Energy-Power Conference in New York.

From Reuters

Ratepayers will also see considerable and persistent cost increases in their utility bills as utilities make those investments and recover what costs they can from their rate base.

From Seattle Times

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

Annual growth in average employee pay is being affected by temporary factors that have inflated the increase in the headline growth rate: base effects where the latest months are now compared with low base periods when earnings were first affected by the pandemic, and compositional effects where there has been a fall in the number and proportion of lower-paid employee jobs, therefore increasing average earnings.

From The Guardian

Financially, however, the utility would actually benefit from completing the upgrades more quickly, since the spending could be added to its rate base.

From Washington Post