4-26-21 ACC Update – Ethics and Energy

Today we have two quick issues to discuss. The first is a quick update and very good win for everyone with the ethics rules at the Commission. The Commission leveled the playing field between traditional and clean candidates. View the video here.

Next we discuss the “Arizona Green New Deal” style energy rules that are coming up for a vote next Tuesday. If you aren’t ready to open your checkbooks, and I mean every single one of you…then you need to see this video!

As always, have fun and God bless!

Nick

ACC Updates 4/19/21

A lot of discussion at the open meeting last week at the Commission. Most of it is pretty mundane stuff, but there were a couple of notable items.

First were the disconnect rules. You can view the quick video summary HERE.

There was also some heated discussion about the standardization of the CC&N extension process. The CC&N is the “Certificate of Convenience and Necessity”. That’s a bit phrase that basically means the utilities service territory. A utility is not prohibited from serving outside of their territory, but without a CC&N, there is nothing keeping other utilities from serving in the same area. The issue at play today is the fact that there is some ambiguity and somewhat arbitrary requirements that have been used with regards to the extension of the CC&N for various companies, and understandably, some utilities are upset about that. While nothing was resolved in this meeting, there seems to be some agreement that maybe some workshops need to be held to discuss the path forward to make this a more standardized process.

Additionally during this meeting we had:

1. Some updates regarding progress from some utilities
2. A ruling to allow an exemption to the master metering rules to allow solar on apartments/condos as well as mobile home parks
3. Some orders of restitution from scammer and other fraudulent activities
4. Authorizations for utilities to take out a loan to do some upgrades and changes (one of them to support a large, new semiconductor manufacturing plant).
5. A few small rate cases
6. The Chairwoman will open a new docket to discuss making the rate case process simpler for small utilities

This week will be a continuation of the items that were not addressed last week. This includes the Code of Ethics discussions, more discussion on hiring a third party consultant for the IRP process as well as the staff meeting.

Have a great week everyone, and God bless!

Nick

AZCC Updates and HB2248

Tomorrow and Wednesday (4/12/21 and 4/13/21) will be the monthly open meeting. On the agenda are a handful of rate cases, electric vehicle rulemaking and tariff discussions, solar “lost cost” discussion, discussion about using the Universal Service Fund for broadband deployment in AZ, Code of Ethics discussions, and a handful of miscellaneous items. As usual, most of these items will include opportunity for public comment, so if you have anything to say, this will be the time to make your voices heard.

HB2248 is the bill introduced by Representative Gail Griffin that codifies in law the EXISTING renewable energy rules. I highlight the fact that they are existing because it would effectively stop the proposed energy rules at the Corporation Commission from being adopted. Remember, the voters overwhelmingly shut down the “Arizona Green New Deal”, Prop 127, just a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, the Commission effectively decided that was the “wrong decision” by the people and took it upon themselves to not only introduce the same rules, but took it a step further and by adding a 100% ban on carbon by 2050. You can read the legislation for yourself here.

Unfortunately, Senator Paul Boyer is the lone vote that is holding up the passage of HB2248. I would urge you all to contact Mr. Boyer: 602-926-4173 or pboyer@azleg.gov and express your concerns about him holding up the legislature in taking ownership of this important issue.

Updates 4/5/2021

Last week was fairly uneventful at the Commission. The yearly “Summer Preparedness” meeting was held on Tuesday. Many of the utilities presented on how they plan to deal with the upcoming Arizona heat. Much of the content was repeated from the prior week’s meetings, but it was great to hear a consistent message and have an opportunity for the Commissioners to once more get any answers to questions they may have had.

I also had my first Critical Infrastructure meeting last week. This was a presentation from the Office of Energy Infrastructure Security at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). This presentation was regarding a recent notice of proposed rulemaking that was issued by FERC that would allow utilities to request incentives for certain types of “above and beyond” measures they may have taken with regards to cybersecurity. Of course, utilities are able to make as many improvements as they deem necessary, but if this rule were to be enacted, any money they spend on automated and continuous monitoring of cybersecurity related to federally regulated equipment, would be eligible to recoup the costs with a little bit of incentive (2%) for those ongoing costs. I know…a lot of you are going to ask “why don’t they do this already?” Well, it all comes down to money and equipment. Much of the grid in the utility infrastructure is outdated and difficult to protect because of the age. The companies must spend a lot of money and time to do the updates, hence the reason we are now discussing an additional incentive. If you have any feedback I would love to hear it.

This is all I have for this week. As always, please make sure you sign my petition and donate a bit of seed money at www.nickmyers.us.

Thank you and God bless!

Nick