by Christian Roselund | pv magazine
Issues of “dark money” in political campaigns, the influence of utilities on the regulatory process appears and a potentially shaky legal basis for certain charges appear to have temporarily stopped utility Arizona Public Service (APS) from imposing additional fees on customers who adopt rooftop solar in its service area.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) ruled to close a hearing which could have allowed APS to impose additional charges beyond the current US$0.70/kW that it collects from its customers who generate power with distributed solar under net metering.
The commission further opened a new generic docket to investigate the costs of service and value of solar for all regulated utilities in the state. This will come outside of rate cases and before APS’ rate case.
