The Arizona Corporation Commission regulates utilities and securities, overseas railroad/pipeline safety and facilitates the incorporation of businesses and organizations.

The Commission consists of five elected officials and was responsible for the Arizona Renewable Energy Standard and Tariff (REST) Policy established in 2006. The REST Policy requires that regulated electric utilities generate 15 percent of their energy from renewable resources by the year 2025. Arizona's utilities are required to file annual implementation plans describing how they will comply with the REST rules. The proposals include incentives for customers who install solar energy technologies for their own homes and businesses. To meet the requirement, electricity may be generated from solar, wind, biomass, biogas, geothermal and other similar technologies.

A January 2013 directive from the Commission required that Arizona Public Service (APS) hold a series of technical conferences to determine the costs and benefits of distributed renewable energy and net metering for Arizona rate payers. The following reports and reference materials were a result of these conferences which concluded on May 28, 2013:

These and other documents along with a complete overview of the conference process can be found at www.solarfuturearizona.com, a website sponsored by APS specifically for the technical conference series.

 

The Arizona Corporation Commission Schedule and Public Comment Process

The Arizona Corporation Commission's calendar through mid-summer contains a number of Special Open Meetings and Workshops that are particular interest to the Solar and Renewable Energy Community. Below is the dates and topics of items that are currently scheduled. Below the calendar items is a primer on how to participate in ACC discussions.

April 17, 2014 - 9:00 a.m.
Special Open Meeting - Workshop #3
Energy Efficiency & Integrated Resource Planning Workshop on Cost-Effectiveness

April 25, 2014 - 9:00 a.m.
Special Open Meeting
Workshop on Emerging Technologies

May 7, 2014 - 10:00 a.m.
Special Open Meeting
Workshop on Value and Cost of Distributed Generation


Future Workshops: The Workshops listed below are part of a series of workshops on the utility business model. The April 25 meeting (above) is part of this series and includes distributed storage/supply and utility-scale storage.

May 28, 2014:
Energy efficiency/Demand Response and Microgrids

June date TBD
Energy efficiency/Demand Response and Microgrids

July 28, 2014
Metering technologies/services and transmission and distribution automation.

August 18, 2014
Metering technologies/services and transmission and distribution automation.

The ACC Process:

The ACC can only consider information that has been submitted in writing and filed in a docket specific to the topic in question.

 

On any particular topic a number of comments, some times into the thousands, are submitted on either side of an issue before the commission; however, contrary to common belief, the ACC decisions are not popularity contests. The ACC does not decide based upon how many people are lined up on either side of an issue; rather, the Commission is set up to decide matters based on facts - much like a court of law. For all the many computer generated-emails, it is instead the few emails from constituents providing facts and precisely outlining the implications to them as a ratepayer that prove to be effective. Those few well-documented emails have much more impact than a bundle of scripted emails that state only an opinion with no facts.

The commission staff reads all the emails and information submitted in the docket. The comments help the staff formulate a professional recommendation to the commission as to what they should or should not do.

There are two ways to submit a comment, either with a public comment form available online (method 1), or via an email to a commissioner (method 2).

For method 1, go to the ACC Home Page and click on the Public Comment link in the lower left-hand corner. Complete the form, making sure to follow all the instructions indicated and provide the docket number of the issue you wish to comment. The form limits you to 1000 characters, so be sure to craft your personal story as briefly and straight-forward as possible. If you are unable to complete your thoughts in the limited space, then instead of using the form you can use method 2 and email any of the commissioners (also a link on the Home Page and provided below). You don't need to use the form in your email, just be sure to include all of the same information, including the docket number of the case you are commenting on.

With either method, your comments will be filed in the docket and distributed throughout the commission, as well as being viewable on line. You do not need to appear at the hearing unless you wish to.

If you have additional questions on how to file a comment, there is a link on the Home Page or you can contact ACC Docket Control at 602-542-3477.