Arizona

Legislative activities

While the Arizona state legislature has not yet approved any laws specific with smart grid as early as 1979 (Arizona Revised Statutes Sec. 33-439. Restrictions on installation or use of solar energy devices invalid; exception), it has looked into some of the distributed generation technologies and created contractual methods for entering into solar easements for solar energy systems and re-addressed the issue in 2007 (Arizona Revised Statutes Sec. 33-1816. Solar energy devices; reasonable restrictions; fees and costs). [5]

Regulatory activities

Following extensive review of time-of-use rates for businesses in 1982, the Arizona Corporation Commission approved the residential equivalent Time-of-Use and Time Advantage Rates. By 2006, the Commission had industrial and load/demand-side management and curtailable service with a demand-side management surcharge on all customers approved for future use by some utilities. Effective 2010, some utilities started a pilot pricing plan for residential service based on Time-of-Use rates incorporating online usage information using wireless smart meters. By 2007 the Corporation Commission initiated a process to establish statewide interconnection standards for distributed generation, approved a separate process for bi-directional net metering in 2009, and in 2010 approved a process for full repayment of small scale Distributed Renewable Energy resources. [2, 3, 4]

“In order to curtail growth in peak loads, the two major utilities, the Arizona Public Service Company and the Salt River Project, have offered time-of-use (TOU) pricing programs to their residential customers for over two decades. During this time, they have attracted some 30 to 40 percent of the residential market. For example, the Salt River Project has more than 222,000 TOU customers, or about 25 percent of its electric customers, which is the third-largest TOU initiative in the United States. Typical TOU customers on this program lower their bill by 7 percent. What is noteworthy is that these effects were obtained without the intervention of enabling technologies.” [6]

“In July 2007, the Arizona Corporation Commission adopted a modified version of PURPA Standard 14 (“Time-Based Metering and Communications”) as enacted in EPACT 2005. The version the Commission adopted applies the PURPA standard to all electric distribution companies within its purview instead of only to companies with retail sales of more than 500,000 MWh (the latter relates to original language in the EPACT statute). The Commission’s version of EPACT 1252 reads:

“Within 18 months of Commission adoption of this standard, each electric distribution utility shall offer to appropriate customer classes, and provide individual customers upon customer request, a time-based rate schedule under which the rate charged by the electric utility varies during different time periods and reflects the variance, if any, in the utility’s costs of generating and purchasing electricity at the wholesale level. Within 18 months of Commission adoption of this standard, each electric distribution utility shall investigate the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of implementing advanced metering infrastructure for its service territory and shall begin implementing the technology if feasible and cost-effective.”” [1]

Time-of-Use and Time Advantage rates break the cost for electricity into periods on a seasonal basis with demand and on-peak, intermediate, or off-peak energy pricing.

Load/demand-side management charges a reduced rate to customers for allowing specific electrical equipment to be interrupted under an interruptible account for up to 8 hours per day.

Net metering is available for any customer’s facility where energy production exceeds the energy supplied by the Company.

Distributed Renewable Energy is only the generation resources approved within sixty days by the company.

Utilities and Rate Schedules

Arizona Public Service
- Arizona Public Service Residential Rates
- Arizona Public Service Business Rates

Salt River Project
- Salt River Project Rates

Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative

Trico Electric Cooperative
- Trico Electric Cooperative Rates

Tucson Electric Power
- Tucson Electric Power Residential Rates
- Tucson Electric Power Business Rates

UniSource Energy Services
- UniSource Energy Services Residential Rates
- UniSource Energy Services Business Rates

See the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) for information on consumer-owned Cooperatives: http://www.nreca.org/members/MemberDirectory/Pages/default.aspx

State-Level Incentives

Arizona has several tax incentives for renewable energy generation including personal and corporate tax credits on non-residential solar and wind, business tax incentives, and utility rebate and loan programs.

More information can be found in the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency (DSIRE): http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/index.cfm?re=1&ee=1&spv=0&st=0&srp=1&state=AZ

Additional Resources

State Energy Office:
- Arizona Department of Commerce

State Authority Dealing with Energy Regulation:
- Arizona Corporation Commission
- Docket Search: https://edocket.azcc.gov/

Arizona Revised Statutes

Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency (DSIRE): http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/index.cfm?re=1&ee=1&spv=0&st=0&srp=1&state=AZ

References

[1] Demand Response and Smart Metering Policy Actions Since the Energy Policy Act of 2005: A Summary for State Officials, Prepared by the U.S. Demand Response Coordinating Committee for The National Council on Electricity Policy, Fall 2008. URL: http://www.oe.energy.gov/DocumentsandMedia/NCEP_Demand_Response_1208.pdf
[2] APS Residential Service, APS Residential Rate Plans. URL:, http://www.aps.com/main/services/residential/rates/Default.html
[3] APS Business Service, Business Rate Plans and Tariffs. URL: http://www.aps.com/main/services/business/rates/default.html
[4] UniSource Energy Services Your Business Pricing Plans. URL: http://uesaz.com/Business/Programs/pricingplans/
[5] Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency, Arizona Solar Energy Covenant Restrictions, 08/18/2009. URL: http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/incentive.cfm?Incentive_Code=AZ07R&re=1&ee=1
[6] Draft for Comment of the National Action Plan on Demand Response The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Staff Docket No. AD09-10, Prepared with the support of The Brattle Group, GMMB, Customer Performance Group, David Lineweber. URL: http://www.ferc.gov/legal/staff-reports/03-12-10-demand-response.pdf