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The building block model is a form of public utility regulation that is common in Australia. Variants of the building block model are currently used in Australia in the regulation of electricity transmission〔(AEMC Review of Transmission Revenue and Pricing Rules ) which confirmed the use of a building block approach for electricity transmission〕 and distribution,〔(Chapter 6 of the National Electricity Rules )〕 gas transmission and distribution,〔(Part 9 of the National Gas Rules )〕 railways,〔(ACCC final decision on the ARTC undertaking ) concerning access to the national interstate rail track infrastructure〕 postal services,〔(ACCC 2010 decision on postal prices )〕 urban water and sewerage services,〔(Essential Services Commission (Victoria) 2005 draft decision on water services )〕 irrigation infrastructure,〔(Draft ACCC Pricing Principles governing charging for irrigation infrastructure )〕 and port access.〔http://www.qca.org.au/files/P-2010dbctdau-QCA-FinalDec-DBCT2010DAU-0910.pdf〕 The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has stated that it intends to use a version of the building block model to determine indicative access prices for fixed-line telecommunications services.〔(ACCC Review of Access Pricing Principles for Fixed Line Services )〕 The building block model is so-called because the allowed revenue of the regulated firm is equal to the sum of underlying components or building blocks consisting of the return on capital, the return of capital (also known as depreciation), the operating expenditure, and various other components such as taxes and incentive mechanisms. ==Origin== Although the principles behind the building block approach are very similar to the principles in many other regulatory regimes around the world (especially the UK), the first use of the term in Australia was in 1998 by the Office of the Regulator General (ORG) in Victoria (the predecessor of the Essential Services Commission of Victoria). The ORG issued a consultation paper on the framework for setting price controls under the 1995 Victorian Electricity Supply Tariff Order, to apply to electricity distribution networks in Victoria from the beginning of 2001.〔(Essential Services Commission (Victoria) Electricity Distribution Price Review Consultation Paper No. 1 June 1998 )〕 The Tariff Order required the ORG to 'utilise price based regulation adopting a CPI-X approach and not rate of return regulation'. In a subsequent application for judicial review in the Supreme Court of Victoria, the regulator described the 'building block approach' that it had used to drive the X factor as follows:〔]〕 :'(a) Establishing forward looking cost or expenditure benchmarks for each of the distributors for operating expenditure, capital expenditure, and cost of capital; :(b) establishing an amount for depreciation; :(c) determining an additional allowance called the efficiency carry over amount for operating and capital costs savings achieved by the distributors in the first period; :(d) establishing a benchmark revenue comprising the amounts derived in accordance with the steps (a) to (c) above, which is known as the building blocks approach; :(e) establishing demand projections for each distributor for the period 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2005; :(f) modelling the X factors to produce a price path for the basket of Network Tariffs whereby an efficient distributor, based on the demand projection, can be expected to earn the benchmark revenue;' The court accepted that this 'building block approach' was not rate-of-return regulation:〔]〕 :'The building block approach adopted by the Office in its price fixing review is forward looking, in that it looked at expected reasonable expenditure ... . Further, it did not determine the specific operating costs for a particular distributor, but create a benchmark forecast of what the efficient firm might spend, which created an incentive to earn more than what might be described as a reasonable rate of return for a particular distributor.' The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission adopted a building block approach in its 1999 draft guideline on how it would set electricity transmission revenue caps under the 1998 National Electricity Code.〔(ACCC draft Statement of Regulatory Principles for the regulation of Electricity Transmission Revenues )〕 The approach was subsequently adopted in other sectors regulated by the ACCC and by other state regulators around Australia. Following the replacement of the National Electricity Code with the National Electricity Rules in 2005, the building block approach was confirmed (with various modifications) in a 2006 review carried out by the Australian Energy Market Commission.〔(AEMC Review of Electricity Transmission Revenue and Pricing Rules 2006 )〕 The National Electricity Rules were amended in 2006 to provide that the annual revenue requirement for a regulated electricity transmission network must be determined using a 'building block approach' under which the 'building blocks are:〔See clause 6A.5.4 of the National Electricity Rules version 10 (16 November 2006).〕 :'(1) indexation of the regulatory asset base ...; :(2) a return on capital for that year ...; :(3) the depreciation for that year ... ; :(4) the estimated cost of corporate income tax of the provider for that year ...; :(5) certain revenue increments or decrements for that year arising from the ''efficiency benefit sharing scheme'' ... ; :(6) the forecast operating expenditure accepted or substituted by the AER for that year ...; and :(7) compensation for other risks ...' A similar provision has applied to regulated electricity distributors from 1 January 2008.〔See clause 6.4.3 of the National Electricity Rules version 18 (1 January 2008)〕 In 2010, the ACCC issued a draft report proposing to adopt a form of the building block model in the regulation of fixed-line telecommunications services.〔(ACCC Review of Access Pricing Principles for Fixed Line Services )〕 The 1998 National Electricity Code did not allow the ACCC to roll forward automatically the value of the regulatory asset base from one regulatory period to the next (in contrast to the (1997 National Third Party Access Code for Natural Gas Pipeline Systems )). however, under both the current National Electricity Rules and National Gas Rules, the regulatory asset base is locked-in using the asset base roll forward equation below. The telecommunications regime has also been amended from 1 January 2011 to allow the ACCC to make access determinations that include 'fixed principles'. The amendment will allow the ACCC to lock-in the value of the asset base across regulatory periods. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Building block model」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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