APS sent a misleading customer notice about the solar charge rehearing in August. That notice implied that only some solar customers are impacted by the rehearing, when potentially all solar customers are impacted. AriSEIA has asked APS to reissue the notice.

​FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
Contact:
Autumn Johnson
(520) 240-4757
[email protected]
 
Phoenix, AZ – Arizona Public Service (APS) is once again advocating for a tax on all solar customers in its service territory. APS seeks a fee increase that amounts to a tax on APS’ nearly 200,000 solar customers where they pay 15% more than all other residential customers. The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) recently ruled that this solar tax increase was enacted without proper public notice and deprived parties of due process and ordered a rehearing to fix these important constitutional issues.
 
The Arizona Solar Energy Industries Association (AriSEIA) has opposed this discriminatory solar tax that raises costs for families all over Arizona.  AriSEIA asked the ACC to reconsider the APS rate case to evaluate the fairness of this fee and cure due process deficiencies. The ACC granted AriSEIA’s rehearing request, but APS has since fought to exclude approximately 74,000 solar customers on “Legacy Rates” from the rehearing and has fought to limit the evidence the ACC can even consider in determining if the fee is legal. Today the ACC issued a decision siding with APS on these two issues. This decision means that there will not be a fair hearing on this new solar tax and that hundreds of thousands of Arizonans that invested their hard-earned money in solar will not be treated fairly.
 
“APS has proven time and again that they will always take whatever actions they can to try and penalize solar customers,” said Autumn Johnson, Executive Director of AriSEIA. “APS fights against rooftop solar for one reason: money. When customers exercise their right to install solar, APS has less justification to build new powerplants that they earn a profit on. Solar customers use their own money to add energy to the grid and reduce peak energy demand, saving all customers money. And these customers increasingly also install batteries that provide APS with power at the exact moment they need it most. Yet, APS, time and again, seeks to hurt solar customers at every opportunity.”
 
The ACC is conducting another hearing in November about these new APS-backed solar taxes that only impact solar customers. It is unclear from the decision today whether or not that hearing will resolve any of the legal concerns of AriSEIA or solar customers, which led to the request for a rehearing in the first place. More information can be found in Docket No. E-01345A-22-0144.
 
About AriSEIA: The Arizona Solar Energy Industries Association (AriSEIA) is the State’s leading trade association dedicated to promoting the adoption of solar, storage, and electrification technologies. AriSEIA advocates for policies that support the growth of Arizona’s solar industry and provides resources and education to ensure that solar energy continues to thrive in the State.
 

ACC Staff filed a unusual motion this week seeking to arbitrarily restrict the scope of the APS rate case rehearing for no legitimate reason. AriSEIA filed again explaining that the reasons for rehearing apply to all not just some solar customers and that without the cost of service study, you would have absolutely no basis to charge solar customers more than everyone else for the same thing. Therefore, all solar customers and the cost of service are part of the rehearing.

APS has attempted to limit the rate case rehearing to only some solar customers. The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) ordered a rehearing on the solar only charge that APS is currently imposing on all solar customers. However, APS has said that the charge being imposed on legacy solar customers is outside the scope of the rehearing. AriSEIA filed asking the judge to clarify to APS that all solar customers are part of the rehearing. The fee cannot only be discriminatory to some solar customers and not others.

AriSEIA was granted a rehearing on the grid access charge (a discriminatory fee on solar), which was imposed in the most recent APS rate case. This fee charges a new flat fee on all solar customers in APS service territory with no substantive basis in the record. Therefore, a rehearing was granted. APS is seeking to defend this discriminatory fee on solar is also trying to rush the rehearing, so that parties like AriSEIA cannot build the record against the charge. Therefore, we proposed our own schedule. The administrative law judge will take up this matter on Friday.