At an Open Meeting on Tuesday, September 11, the Arizona Corporation Commission will consider major changes to rooftop solar policy for customers of Tucson Electric Power. This decision could cloud the skies for future rooftop solar development in Tucson. We need as many people as possible to speak out in support of clean solar energy at the commission.
Tuesday, September 11, 2018, the TEP Energy and UES Electric Phase 2 Solar Rate Cases are on the Arizona Corporation Commission agenda. This could mean the end of Solar Net Metering* in Southern AZ is imminent.
Make your voice heard! Please, consider forming a car pool with you friends.
Make your voice heard! Please, consider forming a car pool with you friends.
OPEN MEETING OF THE ARIZONA CORPORATION COMMISSION
Tuesday, September 11, 2018 10:00 a.m. Hearing Arizona Corporation Commission
1200 West Washington Street, First Floor Phoenix, AZ 85007
Note: Commissioners may attend the proceedings in person, or by telephone, video, or internet conferencing, and may use this open meeting to ask questions about the matters on the agenda. The Commissioners may move to executive session, which will not be open to the public, for the purpose of legal advice pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-431.03(A).
Agendas are also available online at: http://azcc.gov/agendas
If you can't attend in person, please Dial-in: 1-800-689-9374 (Passcode: 415962 for Public Comment (or 415960 to Listen Only).
For a live broadcast feed or archived videos: http://www.azcc.gov/livebroadcast
For agenda and other information:
download:https://azcc.gov/Divisions/Administration/Meetings/Agendas/2018/9-11-18.ROM.pdf
You will get 5 minutes when you sign up to request to speak:
Tips for speaking at the commission:
Sign in at the kiosk when you get to the Arizona Corporation Commission. There will be someone there to help you. If you prefer, you can also sign up to speak in advance at http://requesttospeak.azcc.gov/
When your name is called, go up to the podium where you will face the five Commissioners and their staff (they may not all be there for the entire proceeding). It is a good idea to thank the Chair and the Commissioners for the opportunity to speak and to restate your name and affiliation (if you are representing a business or organization) for the record. Please be respectful.
- Stick to the subject at hand and try to avoid digressions.
- Keep comments brief, simple, and to the point.
- Rarely do Commissioners ask questions of speakers who are not affiliated with an organization (and in rate cases they often don’t ask questions of organizations who aren’t interveners). If they ask a question, it is typically about your experience and it is fine to let them know if you prefer not to answer.
- For those calling in by phone, the same points apply; your comments will be broadcast into the room live for commissioners to hear when you are called upon to speak.
- Mention how long you have been a TEP customer -- residential or business.
- Ask commissioners to reject the solar grid access charges as the proposed order recommends; TEP originally asked for charges of $25-30 per month for new solar customers to access the grid, based on system size. The proposed order rejects these charges.
- Ask the commissioners to oppose drastically lowering the export compensation rate for new solar customers; the proposed order would lower credits to new solar customers by 11%, making it less economic to go solar.
- Ask the commission not to make it harder for people to go solar in Tucson than in Phoenix; the proposed order gives new TEP solar customers 25% less than what APS gives new solar customers under the recently approved APS rate case.
- Ask the commission to provide customers much greater certainty after the first 10 years of their solar system; the proposed order only guarantees an export rate for a 10 year period, after which it could go down to an unknown, much lower rate. Most people pay off panels or sign leases for closer to 20 years, so the uncertainty after 10 years may turn off many prospective solar customers.
The commission is hearing “phase 2” of Tucson Electric Power’s rate case, dealing specifically with rooftop solar issues. Last year, the commission approved a bad “value of solar” decision that requires the commission to gradually repeal and replace net metering with the state’s regulated utilities. Net metering has long been a key policy driving rooftop solar in Arizona and many other states; it gives customers retail credit for excess solar energy sent to the utility.
This TEP case has dragged on for more than a year. TEP originally proposed adding numerous charges to new solar customers in addition to repealing net metering and replacing it with a much lower “export rate”. Solar advocates have argued that such drastic changes go against the facts of the case and spirit of repealing net metering and replacing it gradually with a new system.
In April, the Administrative Law Judge at the commission issued a Recommended Order of Opinion on the case. This order is the basis on which arguments will be made in the meeting. In it, the judge recommended:
- Rejecting grid access charges sought by TEP;
- Accepting a DG meter fee offered by Vote Solar of $2.23 per month;
- Implementing an export rate of 9.64 cents which is 11% below current retail rate and 25% below rate approved for APS;
- Locking in the export rate for 10 years; after which it may be further reduced;
- Among other items.
