Update 12/18/2024: The Arizona Corporation Commission decided to uphold the monthly Grid Access Charge for solar customers on December 17.
After significant pressure from Vote Solar and other organizations, the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) agreed to reconsider the “Grid Access Charge” that unfairly imposes higher electricity prices on households that have chosen to install solar panels. Despite the strong opposition, the ACC is on track to affirm its decision to require that customers with rooftop solar pay a Grid Access Charge at its meeting on December 17.
The Grid Access Charge was established in February 2024 when the ACC voted 4-1 to approve a rate increase for Arizona Public Service (APS) customers, leading to higher bills for residential ratepayers. In that same meeting, utility regulators approved a monthly “solar tax” on the roughly 200,000 Arizonans with rooftop solar. Under the Grid Access Charge, these families are required to pay a higher price for the electricity they purchase compared to their neighbors without solar. State and federal laws generally prohibit discrimination against customers who use solar energy; however, APS is now the only utility in the country that charges all solar customers higher electricity prices.
“The Grid Access Charge is a clear attempt to discourage investments in rooftop solar,” said Vote Solar’s Interior West Regulatory Director, Kate Bowman. “As Arizona families face rising energy bills and record-breaking summer heat, solar is one of their only options to reduce their reliance on the monopoly utilities that have saddled them with rate increase after rate increase. By approving the Grid Access Charge, the ACC continues to chip away at the opportunity to choose energy independence.”
The rehearing, which took place from October 28th through November 1st, served as an opportunity for the public to voice support for the removal of the “solar tax” which affects all households with solar, including legacy net metering customers and newer solar customers. The draft decision recommends keeping the Grid Access Charge in place, but the final vote will take place during an ACC Open Meeting on December 17th.
“The rehearing gave ratepayers and residential solar customers an opportunity to be heard and express their concerns and objections,” said Bowman. “Now, with a fuller picture of the flaws inherent to the Grid Access Charge, we hope that the ACC will recognize the need to repeal this unfair tax on solar customers.”
News item from Vote Solar
Recall the commission. Theg don’t represent their voting public.
“State and federal laws generally prohibit discrimination against customers who use solar energy; however, APS is now the only utility in the country that charges all solar customers higher electricity prices.”
Starting to sound like energy extortion and from the article 200,000 folks with solar PV are paying some disingenuous fee for extra energy pushed back onto the grid, that gets sold in the local area to someone using more power than their solar PV system is putting out or more energy from the local utility grid, if they don’t have solar PV. I’d say that’s an argument for a RICO case against APS AND the ACC. The chorus over the years has been, off grid, off grid, off grid, perhaps it’s time for a more cordial “whatever”attitude as more folks buy into solar PV and BESS and start programming their systems to ride through APS and other utilities, TOU rate periods or get enough solar PV and battery storage to actually meet the homes’ average load demands (overnight) and become grid agnostic. Take a 3,000 square foot home and make it look like a 300 square foot apartment (or less) in energy use billable from the utility a part of the death spiral to the “assured” utility “regulated monopoly”. Both APS, even SRP and TEP should be looking at their solar PV customers as “partners”, instead of some kind of “scofflaw” NOT paying their fair share to the corporate kitty in charge. What part of “pay it forward” and buy your own system that the (utility) does not have to buy property, get rights of ways, finance, pay principle and interest on loans and bonds sold for the project and the utility doesn’t have to insure, troubleshoot or repair the solar PV system, the home owner does or hires a company to do it for them. It is these “avoided costs to the utilility” that are not being accounted for in solar PV adopters. Dog piling the consumer only pushes them to find another way to fill their needs.