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Industry Primers

Bottom-up NAICS industry primers written for both public-market and private investors. Leaf industries are researched from the ground up; every group, subsector, and sector above them reads as a contrast across the industries beneath it.

2122 industries · 24 sectors · NAICS 2022

Researched with AI assistance from official U.S. statistics and independent sources, with citations on every page. Figures are not individually verified against pinned evidence — primers marked Evidence-verified are. Industry research, not investment advice. Methodology.

IndustryNAICS 92613Public Administration

Regulation and Administration of Communications, Electric, Gas, and Other Utilities (NAICS 92613)

A Histometrics industry primer for public-market and private investors.

1. Overview

NAICS 92613 is a NAICS industry (a five-digit code in the North American Industry Classification System, the U.S. government's standard code set for industries). It covers the government side of utility markets — the federal and state bodies that license, inspect, set rates for, and write the rules governing electric power, natural gas, water, sewerage, and communications providers. NAICS files it under Sector 92, Public Administration, so every "establishment" inside it is a public agency, not a business.[1]

This is a single-child code: 92613 contains exactly one national industry beneath it, 926130 (Regulation and Administration of Communications, Electric, Gas, and Other Utilities), and the two levels are effectively identical in scope. The five-digit code and its one six-digit child describe the same universe — the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and the roughly 50 state public utility commissions (PUCs), also called public service commissions (PSCs). This page is therefore a short rollup. For the full detail — the agency-by-agency budgets, how rate-base regulation mints utility returns, the investable proxies, demand drivers, and risks — read the 926130 primer.

Why would an investor read a primer on a government function at all? Because these agencies write the economics of some of the largest, most widely owned assets in the country. A regulated electric, gas, or water utility earns essentially the return a commission allows it to earn on the capital it invests; a telecom carrier's spectrum and mergers run through the FCC; an interstate pipeline's tariffs are set at FERC. There is no direct stake to take in a regulator — exposure is always indirect, through the regulated utilities, carriers, and infrastructure the code oversees.

2. What's inside — and why this level equals its one child

NAICS uses successive digits to nest industries: the five-digit "NAICS industry" (92613) can split into several six-digit "national industries." Here it does not split — it has a single child, 926130, which carries 100% of the level's content. There is no residual, no "all other" sibling, and no economic activity in 92613 that is not also in 926130. When that happens, the parent is a pass-through: reading the child is reading the parent.

For orientation, what both levels contain (and deliberately exclude):

  • In scope: government establishments primarily engaged in administering, regulating, licensing, and inspecting utilities — communications, electric power (including fossil, nuclear, solar, water, and wind), gas, water supply, and sewerage.[1][2] Concretely: FERC (interstate wholesale power, interstate gas pipelines, hydropower, liquefied natural gas [LNG] terminals), the FCC (spectrum, interstate/international communications, broadband), nuclear safety licensing at the NRC, and the state PUCs/PSCs that set retail rates.
  • Not in scope: the utilities themselves (Sector 22, Utilities) and communications carriers (Sector 517) — the players, not the referee; environmental regulation (the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, sits in 924110); and the sibling 926-codes for other economic and commercial regulation (926110 general economic programs, 926120 transportation, 926140 agricultural marketing, 926150 miscellaneous commercial sectors). Utility regulation is carved into its own code precisely so it can be tracked on its own.[2]

Because the parent and child are the same thing, everything in Sections 3–10 below is 92613's figures stated once; the child primer carries the same material at full length.

3. Size (this level's rollup figures)

Ground-truth caveat first. Histometrics has no ingested federal business-statistics metrics for NAICS 92613 — and, as at the child level, that absence is the story rather than a gap to paper over. The Census Bureau's County Business Patterns and Economic Census, the usual sources for establishment counts, payroll, and receipts, exclude Sector 92 (Public Administration) because these are government bodies, not businesses.[3] There are no "small businesses" here, no receipts, and no shares. So the standard business-statistics picture of 92613 is blank by design, and missing data is not zero — any figure claiming otherwise should be treated with suspicion. What can be measured comes from agency budgets and government-employment counts, each cited below.

Since the level equals its one child, the rollup equals 926130's own numbers:

Regulator Approx. staff (FTE) Approx. annual budget Funding source
FERC (federal energy) ~1,560–1,580[7] ~$500–530 million[7] 100% recovered from regulated industry; net cost to taxpayer ≈ $0[5]
FCC (federal communications) ~1,400–1,500[8] ~$390–450 million[8][9] 100% from regulatory fees since 2009[8]
NRC (nuclear safety) ~2,900 (2,947 as of Sept. 2024)[12] ~$1 billion[12] ~90–100% recovered from licensee fees[13]
~50 state commissions Hundreds to ~1,000 each (e.g., California ~1,000, Pennsylvania ~540, Texas ~280)[17][19][20] Varies widely by state State assessments on regulated utilities

(FTE = full-time equivalent staff.) S&P Global's regulatory-research unit tracks 54 commissions with 216 commissioner seats, of which roughly 210 were filled in 2025.[14] The headcount is small — tens of thousands nationwide — but the dollars it governs are enormous: the U.S. system these bodies oversee produced about 4,178 billion kilowatt-hours of utility-scale electricity in 2023,[16] and a single mid-size commission of a few hundred staff sets the returns on tens of billions of dollars of utility assets.

4. Investable universe (where value concentrates)

Direct plays: none. You cannot buy FERC, the FCC, the NRC, or a state PUC. This is the cleanest example in the Histometrics series of a code with zero investable entities inside it — and because 92613 has a single child, all of the adjacent value sits, undiluted, in the same place the 926130 primer maps in full. Value concentrates in the regulated companies whose economics these agencies define: regulated electric/gas/water utilities (e.g., NextEra Energy [NEE], Duke Energy [DUK], Southern Company [SO], American Water Works [AWK]); interstate pipelines under FERC; communications carriers under the FCC (AT&T [T], Verizon [VZ], T-Mobile US [TMUS]); and towers and fiber (American Tower [AMT], Crown Castle [CCI]). Private-market owners reach the same cash flows — Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Brookfield's infrastructure funds, and BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners among them. See the 926130 primer, Section 4, for the full proxy map and which regulator matters for each asset. (Tickers and valuation belong to this company-selection step, not to the definition of the code.)

5. How the money works

Two money stories, both detailed in the child primer.

A) The agencies fund themselves from the regulated, not the taxpayer. FERC recovers 100% of its appropriation through charges on the pipelines and power markets it oversees; the FCC has been 100% fee-funded since 2009; the NRC recovers roughly 90–100% from nuclear licensees; state commissions run on assessments levied on in-state utilities.[5][8][13] The industry pays for its own oversight.

B) The regulated companies earn rate base × allowed return. A traditional utility invests capital (poles, wires, pipes, plants); the depreciated value of that prudent capital is its rate base; in a rate case the commission sets a revenue requirement plus an allowed return on equity (ROE) — roughly 9.5–9.7% on average for U.S. electric utilities in 2024–25.[14] Earnings grow chiefly by growing rate base, and each dollar only earns a return if a regulator in this code approves its recovery. That is the crux the whole code administers: the commission converts capital spending into shareholder return — or refuses to. (Merchant generators, carriers, and tower/fiber owners earn on different mechanics — wholesale prices, subscriptions, and leases — but the regulator still sets the ceiling.)

6. Demand drivers

"Demand" here means demand for regulatory activity. The main forces: data-center and AI load growth (U.S. data-center electricity use rose from 58 to 176 terawatt-hours [TWh] between 2014 and 2023 and could reach 325–580 TWh by 2028),[17] after roughly two flat decades of load; a record utility capital super-cycle (electric and gas capex projected near $215 billion in 2025, up from ~$173 billion in 2024, driving record rate-case volume);[15] electrification and reshoring; the energy transition and its interconnection-queue backlogs; broadband and spectrum policy at the FCC; water quality and aging pipes; safety shocks (wildfires, pipeline explosions); and affordability politics as rising bills flow into commission decisions. The child primer expands each.

7. Regulation

For most industries regulation is a constraint; here it is the output. State PUCs/PSCs set retail rates, service quality, and utility-merger and resource-planning approvals; FERC governs interstate transmission, wholesale power, interstate gas, hydropower, LNG, and organized markets (generally not retail rates); the FCC governs interstate/international communications; the NRC licenses and inspects nuclear plants; the EPA and states set drinking-water and discharge standards. The federal–state jurisdictional split is the defining feature and a perpetual battleground. Most state commissioners are appointed, but in 11 states they are elected, which makes those commissions less predictable on ROE.[14] Federal commissioners are presidentially appointed and Senate-confirmed with fixed terms, so agency composition swings with the political cycle. Full statutory and structural detail is in the 926130 primer, Section 7.

8. Consolidation

There is no competition among regulators — each is a legal monopoly over its territory — but the regulated landscape consolidates, and every deal raises regulatory complexity because a single corporate parent answers to a dozen commissions plus FERC. Recent transactions show the pattern: Brookfield agreed in August 2025 to take a 19.7% minority interest in Duke Energy Florida for $6 billion;[18] American Water and Essential Utilities announced an all-stock merger in October 2025 to form a leading regulated water/wastewater utility;[20] and a GIP/EQT-led consortium agreed to acquire AES at about $33.4 billion including debt.[19] Alongside consolidation sit chronic concerns about agency capacity (interconnection backlogs) and regulatory capture — both feed how investors handicap a state's "regulatory quality."

9. Risks (from the investor's seat)

Because you invest around this code rather than in it, the risks are the ways regulatory decisions and physical events impair the regulated companies: adverse rate outcomes (a low ROE, thin equity layer, or disallowed costs — the number-one risk); regulatory lag (costs running ahead of recovery); affordability and political risk (bill backlash, elected commissioners); federal-appointment swings at FERC/FCC/NRC; construction and financing risk on long-lead projects; catastrophe and cost-disallowance (wildfires, storms, contamination); commodity/market risk for merchant and communications assets; and agency-capacity bottlenecks. Note the asymmetry: the same regulatory power that caps returns also guarantees them, giving regulated utilities unusually stable, bond-like cash flows — which is why they attract conservative and income investors.

10. How to invest & outlook

You can't own the regulator — you own what it regulates. Practical routes are the same as at the child level: public equities (regulated electric, gas, and water utilities; carriers under the FCC; interstate pipelines under FERC — typically lower-beta, dividend-paying names); utility bonds (investment-grade debt backed by commission-set rates); sector funds/ETFs for diversified exposure without single-state regulatory bets; and private markets (infrastructure, energy-transition, and digital-infrastructure funds, plus project finance and municipal utility revenue bonds).

Near-term outlook. The central tension for the next several years is unprecedented capital needs meeting regulators' willingness to fund them. Data-center and AI load growth, electrification, grid modernization, and transmission buildout point to a multi-year rate-base expansion — bullish for regulated companies if commissions grant timely, adequate recovery, and pressured by affordability politics if they don't. The code itself will never become a standalone investable sector; it is government administration. The single most useful underwriting question stays the same: what will its commission let it earn? For the full treatment, see the 926130 primer.

Sources

Drawn from the child primer (926130); numbering matches that source.

  1. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 NAICS — Sector 92 (Public Administration) definitions, including 926130. https://www.census.gov/naics/resources/archives/sect92.html
  2. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 NAICS Manual (definitions and exclusions). https://www.census.gov/naics/reference_files_tools/2022_NAICS_Manual.pdf
  3. U.S. Census Bureau, "County Business Patterns" (program scope — excludes most Public Administration, Sector 92). https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp.html
  4. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, "Annual Charges" (full cost recovery; net appropriation ≈ zero). https://www.ferc.gov/natural-gas/general-information/annual-charges
  5. S&P Global Commodity Insights, "FERC plans 2025 budget amid staffing concerns, federal workforce cuts," 2025. https://www.spglobal.com/commodity-insights/en/news-research/latest-news/crude-oil/022825-ferc-plans-2025-budget-amid-staffing-concerns-federal-workforce-cuts
  6. Congressional Research Service, "The Federal Communications Commission: Structure, Operations, and Budget" (R45699; 100% fee funding since 2009). https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R45699
  7. Federal Communications Commission, Agency Financial Report. https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-25-1059A1.pdf
  8. Wikipedia, "Nuclear Regulatory Commission" (≈2,947 employees as of Sept. 2024; budget/FTE); USAFacts, "What does the Nuclear Regulatory Commission do?" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Regulatory_Commission
  9. U.S. Government Accountability Office, "Nuclear Regulatory Commission: Fee-Setting, Billing, and Budgeting Processes" (GAO-20-362; ~90% recovery, NEIMA moving toward ~100%), 2020. https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-20-362
  10. S&P Global Market Intelligence, "US utility commissioners: Who they are and how they impact regulation" (54 commissions, 216 seats; 11 states elect commissioners), 2024. https://www.spglobal.com/market-intelligence/en/news-insights/research/us-utility-commissioners-who-they-are-and-how-they-impact-regulation
  11. Wikipedia, "California Public Utilities Commission" (≈1,000 staff). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Public_Utilities_Commission
  12. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, "About the PUC" (≈537 staff). https://www.puc.pa.gov/about-the-puc/
  13. The Texas Tribune, "Government Salaries Explorer — Public Utility Commission of Texas" (≈283 employees). https://salaries.texastribune.org/departments/public-utility-commission-of-texas/
  14. S&P Global Market Intelligence, "Underearning spread widens for gas, electric utilities in ROE analysis" (avg. authorized electric ROE ≈9.5–9.7%, 2024–25), 2025. https://www.spglobal.com/market-intelligence/en/news-insights/research/underearning-spread-widens-for-gas-electric-utilities-in-roe-analysis
  15. S&P Global Market Intelligence, "US utility capex forecast nudges higher on increased generation spending plans" (≈$215B in 2025 vs ≈$173B in 2024), Oct. 2025. https://www.spglobal.com/market-intelligence/en/news-insights/research/2025/10/us-utility-capex-forecast-nudges-higher-on-increased-generation-spending-plans
  16. U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Electricity in the United States" (utility-scale generation ≈4,178 bn kWh, 2023). https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/electricity-in-the-us-generation-capacity-and-sales.php
  17. U.S. Department of Energy, "DOE Releases New Report Evaluating Increase in Electricity Demand from Data Centers" (58→176 TWh 2014–2023; 325–580 TWh by 2028), 2024. https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-releases-new-report-evaluating-increase-electricity-demand-data-centers
  18. Duke Energy, "Duke Energy partners with Brookfield to secure investment in Duke Energy Florida" ($6B for a 19.7% minority interest, Aug. 2025). https://investors.duke-energy.com/news/news-details/2025/Duke-Energy-partners-with-Brookfield-to-secure-investment-in-Duke-Energy-Florida-expands-capital-plan-to-87-billion/
  19. Global Infrastructure Partners, "Consortium Led by Global Infrastructure Partners and EQT Agrees to Acquire AES" (≈$33.4B enterprise value; stockholder approval 2026). https://www.global-infra.com/news/consortium-led-by-global-infrastructure-partners-and-eqt-agrees-to-acquire-aes/
  20. American Water, "American Water and Essential Utilities to Merge as a Leading Regulated U.S. Water and Wastewater Utility" (all-stock; announced Oct. 26, 2025). https://ir.amwater.com/news-and-events/financial-releases/financial-release-details/2025/American-Water-and-Essential-Utilities-to-Merge-as-a-Leading-Regulated-U-S--Water-and-Wastewater-Utility/default.aspx