A Growing OpEx Risk Is Changing How Utilities View Spend Management

For decades, utility operating expenses (OpEx) were treated as largely predictable. They were managed through annual budgets, periodic audits, and rate case recovery. That assumption no longer holds.

A new risk is emerging inside utility OpEx, and it’s not coming from labor rates or fuel costs. It’s coming from how spend is captured, governed, and defended in an era of heightened regulatory scrutiny and evolving cost-recovery models.

For utility finance leaders, this is no longer just an operational concern. It’s a regulatory and earnings risk and spend management systems now sit at the center of the conversation.

Regulatory Shifts Are Changing What “Prudent OpEx” Means

Across U.S. jurisdictions, regulators are moving toward:

• Greater cost transparency
• Stronger documentation requirements
• Increased use of performance-based mechanisms and multi-year rate plans
• Tighter scrutiny of “discretionary” operating expenses

Under these models, utilities are increasingly expected to prove that OpEx is necessary, policy-compliant, consistently applied, and supported by auditable data.

That includes categories historically viewed as low risk—travel, field expenses, contractor spend, and reimbursables.

Where the Hidden OpEx Risk Lives

The risk isn’t the spend itself. It’s how that spend is managed.

Many utilities still rely on:

• Manual expense reports
• Delayed receipt submission
• Inconsistent policy enforcement
• Limited visibility until after costs are incurred
• Siloed data between finance, operations, and audit

In a regulatory environment that increasingly expects real-time insight and defensible controls, these gaps create exposure. If an expense can’t be:

• Tracked to policy
• Linked to business purpose
• Audited efficiently
• Explained clearly to regulators

…it becomes a potential disallowance risk, not just an accounting nuisance.

Travel & Expense Is No Longer “Back Office”

Travel and expense spend is often embedded in:

• Storm response and outage recovery
• Field crew mobilization
• Capital project oversight
• Vendor and contractor engagement
• Regulatory, safety, and compliance activities

As regulators apply more pressure on utilities to control OpEx growth, T&E becomes a visible signal of financial discipline—or lack of it.

From a regulatory standpoint, questions are shifting from: “Did you stay within budget?” to:

“Can you demonstrate consistent controls, policy enforcement, and transparency across the enterprise?”

That’s a very different bar. That’s where SAP Concur helps utilities embed controls, automate policy enforcement, and deliver real-time spend transparency that stands up to regulatory scrutiny.

Why Spend Management Technology Has Become a Financial Safeguard

Modern spend management platforms, especially those purpose-built for regulated industries, help utilities shift from reactive reporting to proactive OpEx governance.

Key capabilities that matter now include:

• Real-time spend visibility, not after-the-fact reconciliation
• Automated policy enforcement at the point of spend
• Mobile and offline capture for field crews and emergency response
• Audit-ready documentation aligned to regulatory expectations
• Centralized data that supports rate cases, audits, and board oversight

In short, spend management systems are becoming a control layer for regulatory confidence, not just an efficiency tool.

The Strategic Shift for Utility Finance Leaders

Finance, audit, and compliance teams are being asked to:

• Forecast OpEx under new regulatory incentive structures
• Reduce discretionary spend without slowing operations
• Defend cost decisions with greater speed and accuracy
• Support regulators, boards, and auditors with consistent data

This means moving spend management beyond reimbursements to managing spend proactively from the moment it’s incurred.

Utility organizations that modernize how travel, expense, and operational spend is governed can:

• Lower regulatory headaches and friction
• Better defend rate cases
• Keep costs under control without slowing down field teams
• Respond faster during audits and investigations

The Bottom Line

The new risk hiding in utility OpEx isn’t just rising costs, it’s insufficient visibility and control in a changing regulatory environment.

As regulators redefine what prudent spending looks like, utility organizations must rethink how OpEx is captured, governed, and explained. Spend management now plays a direct role in regulatory readiness and financial resilience.

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