JPMorgan’s strategy focuses on investments with more certainty and more predictable returns. Merchant power utilities do not have a steady predictable cash flow, he said.

But a more definitive benchmark for the asset class has yet to be developed, he said. “When somebody creates a robust private total return index and takes the time to get enough data from industry participants, that will likely become the most popular,” said Weisdorf, who previously was vice president of private market investments for the C$122.7 billion Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. “Everybody is grasping for the best benchmark that they can when there is no robust private benchmark.”