Arizona residents and businesses were given some extra time to weigh-in on a controversial proposal to eliminate some of the state’s energy efficiency standards.
The public comment period ended early last week, but during a staff meeting on Friday, the Arizona Corporation Commission voted to extend the public comment deadline to Dec. 2.
So far, everyone from homeowners to religious groups to large corporations such as Honeywell have submitted more than 200 comments in opposition of the proposal, which outgoing Commissioner Gary Pierce filed Nov. 4.
While it was supported by some smaller utilities, Arizona Public Service Co., the state’s largest utility, joined the opposition.
“APS has been successful in meeting its annual milestones toward the [energy efficiency standards] in 2011, 2012 and 2013,” according to APS’s response submitted on Nov. 18. “For these reasons, APS does not believe the current [energy efficiency standards] needs to be modified at this time.”
The standards were adopted by the commission in 2010 and require regulated utilities such as APS to make a 22 percent cut to the amount of power they sell by 2020. Utilities have incremental efficiency goals to meet leading up to 2020.
To meet those goals, utilities have been offering subsidies and rebates to customers for doing such things as switching to energy-efficient appliances. As a result, Arizona ratepayers have saved millions of dollars on their electricity bills.
Pierce told KJZZ earlier this month that determining the cost-effectiveness of the program is too subjective, and many times the commission and the utilities don’t see eye to eye. So Pierce said he is proposing a more standardized process and, instead of the 22 percent goal by 2020, efficiency goals would be set every two years.
The Grand Canyon State Electric Cooperative Association, which filed a comment on behalf of seven smaller utilities, said it supported Pierce’s proposal because the current standards “are not realistic, measurable or achievable.”
“Cooperatives are reliant on their members to adopt [energy efficiency] measures and should not face being penalized for not meeting the existing [energy efficiency] goals established without consideration of the specific circumstances of the individual cooperative and its members,” the association wrote. “Customers have limits on the amount they can afford or, for that matter, want to conserve.”
But opponents say Pierce and commission staff haven’t offered any solid evidence showing the current standards aren’t working and should be removed.
“Not enough time has been granted to fully consider the impacts of this major policy proposal and no analysis or supporting evidence was given to explain why the changes are warranted,” Heather Szymanski, executive director of Efficiency First Arizona, said in a Nov. 18 letter to the commission. “The proposal is the result of a flawed public process, suggests bad public policy, and would be severely detrimental to Arizona ratepayers and Arizona’s economy.”
The Residential Utility Consumer Office, or RUCO, said in its letter that it had attended a series of workshops held by Pierce earlier this year on the issue, and it was surprised to see his Nov. 4 proposal.
“These workshops did not reveal any compelling evidence that the energy efficiency standards need to be abandoned or significantly revised,” RUCO wrote. “If anything was confirmed, it was that existing policies work for ratepayers. They are delivering substantial benefits at a cost less than anticipated.”
