Tell Arizona Corporation Commission we need more rooftop solar

Tell the Arizona Corporation Commission that we want rooftop solar to be more accessible in AZ

Solar United Neighbors has joined forces with Vote Solar and consumer and business groups, faith leaders, tribal communities, and health and conservation organizations to call for more rooftop solar in our state.

This powerful coalition is urging the Arizona Corporation Commission to adopt a clean energy plan that ensures that 10% of the state’s electricity comes from local distributed resources like rooftop solar, and other customer-driven energy options by 2030. The plan also sets a statewide renewable energy goal of 50% by 2030, moving toward 100% clean energy by 2045.

Now is the time for Arizona solar advocates, like you, to tell the ACC commissioners that powering our households and businesses with homegrown, clean energy lowers and stabilizes electricity costs while boosting our economy with clean energy jobs across the state.

Please make your voice heard by signing this petition, please forward this message to your friends and neighbors. 

Sign the petition (below) by clicking here. 

https://www.solarunitedneighbors.org/arizona/take-action-in-arizona/add-your-voice-arizona-needs-more-rooftop-solar/

Dear Commissioners,

I’m an Arizona energy customer, and I support clean energy progress and solar rights in our state.In Docket RU-00000A-18-0284, I urge you to make a bold commitment to renewable energy and expand consumer clean energy options by:

• Setting a binding 50% by 2030 renewable energy standard and 100% by 2045 clean standard.
• Ensuring that 10% of electricity comes from local distributed resources like rooftop solar, and other customer-driven energy options by 2030.
• Ensuring cumulative energy efficiency savings of 35% by 2030.
• Establishing more comprehensive and transparent energy planning process in which the ACC would review a utility’s Integrated Resource Plan and provide opportunities for public and stakeholder input.

Please speak up for Net Metering at the ACC Phase 2 Solar Rate Case hearing in Phoenix, Sept. 11 @ 10 a.m.

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. 

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.

Suggested talking points on the TEP case:

1. Mention how long you have been a TEP customer -- residential or business. 
2. 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. 
3. 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. 
4. 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. 
5. 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. 

Additional background on the case:

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:

1. Rejecting grid access charges sought by TEP; 
2. Accepting a DG meter fee offered by Vote Solar of $2.23 per month; 
3. Implementing an export rate of 9.64 cents which is 11% below current retail rate and 25% below rate approved for APS; 
4. Locking in the export rate for 10 years; after which it may be further reduced; 
5. Among other items.

CALL IN TUESDAY for ACC Public Comment: TEP Energy Phase 2 Solar Rate Case on Net Metering, Sept. 11 @ 10 a.m.

TEP Energy and UES Electric Phase 2 Solar Rate Cases are on the Tuesday, September 11, 2018 Arizona Corporation Commission agenda. This could mean the end of Solar Net Metering* in Southern AZ is imminent. That will make it less cost efficient to install rooftop solar. Please, consider calling in to make a public comment.

Dial-in Phone Number: 1-800-689-9374 (Passcode: 415962 for Public Comment)

*Net metering is a billing mechanism that credits solar energy system owners for the electricity they add to the grid. Net metering allows residential and commercial customers who generate their own electricity from solar power to feed electricity they do not use back into the grid.

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

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

Dial-in Phone Number: 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: 

Suggested talking points on the TEP case:

1. Mention how long you have been a TEP customer -- residential or business.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.

Additional background on the case:

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 recommends:

1)    Rejecting grid access charges sought by TEP;

2)    Accepting a DG meter fee offered by Vote Solar of $2.23 per month;

3)    Implementing an export rate of 9.64 cents which is 11% below current retail rate and 25% below rate approved for APS;

4)    Locking in the export rate for 10 years; after which it may be further reduced;

5)    Among other items.

Don't allow TEP to charge more for residential solar

The battle continues.

Consideration of TEP's solar net metering policy has been scheduled for the ACC's April 26th open meeting. TEP is proposing that solar electricity exported from a home will have a different value than the energy purchased or imported from TEP.

TEP is in the second phase of their rate case, which will address changes to net metering and rates for customers who sign up for solar (distributed generation) after the date of the decision of the rate case.

Want to speak out? 

There are a few options: You can go up to meeting in Phx and speak, request to call in to the open meeting (you'll need to call the Commission to inquire about how), or you can write a letter to the docket. (Docket # E-01933A-15-0322 should be referenced in letter or call request.)

This blog post contains more info on contacting the ACC: 

http://www.tfssolar.com/about-us/news/2017/2/10/state-of-solar

April 26, 2018 - 9:00 a.m.
Regular Open Meeting
Arizona Corporation Commission
Hearing Room One
1200 W. Washington Street
Phoenix, AZ 85007

http://edocket.azcc.gov/Calendar

Here are the changes TEP has requested:

1) Net metering is to be replaced with an export rate set at $0.095/kwh. This would mean that any electricity used on site when it is generated would be valued at retail rates ($0.105 - $0.125/kwh), and any energy exported would be valued at $0.095 cents. The export rate would be locked in for 10 years, after which it would change to the current rate at that time. Each year the export rate will change based on a calculation of the cost of utility scale solar energy values.

2) Time of Use (TOU) rates with a grid access fee, or Demand based rates. Both of these rates would result in a significant reduction of the savings from solar, so that if they were approved, solar energy systems might never pay for themselves. The payback if the rates were fixed for 20 years would be about 15 years, but because the export rate will only be fixed for 10 years, the payback for new systems would be unknown, but greater than 15 years.

3) Increased meter fees for the bi-directional meter, and a new meter fee for the solar meter. These fees would have a small impact on large systems, but for customers with modest bills they would extend out the return for solar even longer.

TEP customers who submit an application for interconnection prior to the decision date of the Phase 2 part of the rate case will be grandfathered under existing net metering rules for 20 years from the date of their installation. We expect the decision to be made sometime in the fall, unless there is a settlement, in which case it could be as early as mid July.