A new ruling this week may throw a wrench in Arizona Public Service Co.’s hopes of raising fees on solar this year.
The administrative law judge’s ruling recommended the Arizona Corporation Commission dismissed APS’s request for a $21 average monthly fee on new solar customers, saying the case’s arguments of there being an “urgent need” to proceed hasn’t been substantiated.
Instead, the judge urged for the matter to be considered next summer as part of the utility’s next rate case, which is a lengthier and more rigorous process than that of the current proposal.
“There is little regulator wisdom in undertaking a proceeding that is severely handicapped from the beginning in the way of possible solutions to a problem that can be readily addressed in a rate case which will be filed in less than one year,” the ruling said.
The ruling is only a recommendation for the Corporation Commission to consider when it eventually votes on the matter, which is tentatively scheduled for its next open meeting later this month.
When asked whether the commission tends to vote as recommended by rulings such as these, Jodi Jerich, executive director of the Corporation Commission, said in an email, “Every docket is unique and stands on its own.”
An APS spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The utility’s proposal is a substantial jump from the current $5 monthly average that APS solar customers pay, a fee that the Corporation Commission approved in 2013 as part of the controversial net metering debate.
Officials at APS, which is Arizona’s largest utility, have said the higher fee would help address the record-high number of solar installations this year. The proposed fee is less than half of the $51 average monthly solar fee approved in February by Salt River Project, the state’s second-largest utility and which is not regulated by the Corporation Commission.
Utilities in general argue that imposing higher fees on solar would help keep electricity costs down for non-solar customers.
Solar customers generate some of their own power, which reduces their monthly electricity bills, but they still need to be connected to the grid when the sun is down. Utilities and the solar industry are at odds as to whether this shifts costs of improving and maintaining the grid to non-solar customers.
