Consultants

AWA

Abby Abate
Manager

Mrs. Abate began with Regulatory Economics Group in January 2007. She has over fifteen years of providing consulting services in the energy industry. At REG, Abby performs a broad range of consulting services, with a focus on regulatory accounting and reporting, ratemaking issues, and litigation support. Mrs. Abate is a Certified Public Accountant (“CPA”) licensed in Virginia.

Relevant Experience

Cost-of-Service
  • Experienced in preparing cost-of-service calculations on behalf of oil pipelines for various purposes, including cost-based rate-filings, Page 700 reporting, strategic decision making, and litigation support.  
  • Experienced with various cost-based ratemaking approaches, including total system cost-of-service analysis, segmented cost-of-service analysis, fully-allocated-cost (“FAC”) rate analysis, and competitively-constrained rate analysis.
Market-Based Rates
  • Knowledgeable of relevant market-based rate requirements and precedent, including Cost acceptable geographic and product market definitions as well as acceptable thresholds of market concentration statistics. 
  • Prepared high-level feasibility studies to determine the market concentration statistics for oil pipelines considering market-based rates.
  • Experienced with preparing market power measures (e.g., HHI) to support an oil pipelines request for market-based ratemaking authority. 
  • Assisted several oil pipeline companies with preparation of applications for market-based ratemaking authority that were subsequently accepted by FERC. 
Litigation Support
  • Assisted in the preparation of expert testimony and filed exhibits on behalf of numerous pipelines before state and federal regulatory authorities on topics including depreciation, cost allocation, ratemaking issues, and regulatory theory.  
  • Participated in the discovery process in several litigated proceedings, including assisting in the preparation of discovery requests and responses on behalf of oil pipeline companies, and overseeing document management.
  • Supported legal counsel in the cross-examination of expert witnesses on topics of depreciation and cost allocation. 
Regulatory Accounting and Reporting
  • Advised clients on accounting requirements mandated by the Uniform System of Accounts for Interstate Oil Pipelines (“USoA”).  
  • Advised clients on improvements to accounting systems to ensure conformance with the USoA and other regulatory data requirements.
  • Assisted in the development of several topics for an industry accounting guideline for AOPL, designed to resolve ambiguities in regulatory accounting standards.  
  • Completed a comprehensive review of an oil pipeline company’s compliance with FERC’s regulations to aid in FERC audit-readiness planning.  
  • Assisted in the preparation of multiple depreciation studies to be filed with FERC in accordance with 18 CFR § 348. 
FERC Form 6/6-Q Reporting
  • Assisted with the preparation of numerous Form No. 6/6-Q reports.  
  • Prepared annual Page 700 cost-of-service calculations for numerous oil pipeline companies.
Presentations
  • Assisted with preparation of regulatory accounting and reporting presentations to be presented at industry events.  
  • Prepared and co-led on-site training sessions on various FERC accounting and regulatory requirements.
  • Presented on Form 6 topics at industry conference. 

Education and Credentials

  • Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Commonwealth of Virginia (License No. 42294)
  • George Mason University, M.S. Accounting (2011), B.S. Accounting (2008)