The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
Terry Finefrock
I am writing to provide my opinions on how voters and prospective candidates can create significant value for all Arizonans during the 2024 elections when three of the five Arizona Corporation (ACC) commissioners will be elected.
How does the ACC impact you?
The ACC is responsible for spending its $40 million annual budget, funded by your taxes, to improve the affordability and reliability of our electric grid. Significant changes in ACC leadership and practices are necessary since other alternatives are available to avoid many of the historical costs that the ACC has allowed.
The ACC provides utilities with captive ratepayers and territorial monopolies that eliminate the incentive for utilities to reduce costs and rates. The ACC doesn’t even fully evaluate utility planned expenditures, but encourages utilities to undertake actions that increase, not reduce costs without penalty. For example, when “acknowledging” utility resource plans and expenditures that will be added to your utility bills, the ACC does not consider and avoid the costs of severe weather events, wildfires, personal and public property damages, healthcare, and water replacement costs that will be incurred by local governments and ultimately charged to you as taxpayers.
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Arizona solar electric generation is now much less expensive than coal or gas plants, yet TEP generates only 14% of its sales with solar. Solar electric generation has no harmful emissions, volatile fuel nor precious water costs and minimal operating and maintenance labor costs. Solar farms can be located in close proximity to consumers, so they do not require expensive and vulnerable natural gas pipelines or transmission infrastructure that loses 8% of the electricity during transmission.
Worse, and apparently of no concern to the current ACC, TEP loses about 6 billion gallons of precious water per year to evaporation. For local generation, TEP withdraws water from local aquifers recharged by Tucson Water ratepayers yet pays nothing for that water. In the near future, to avoid the greater cost of alternative new water sources, Tucson Water will need that water to produce potable water.
Solutions being deployed by other state commissions would also help us improve the Arizona electricity system. As demonstrated by Texas and other states, adding new energy storage and demand management systems would significantly improve system reliability AND resiliency. Those “microgrids” or “virtual power plants” reduce costs by storing excess utility and ratepayer-generated electricity when demands are low and utilizes that energy when demands increase or generation is low.
Also, new federal funding may be available to introduce or expand these options. The US Department of Energy has provided $3.5 billion in grants to 42 states to expand capacity to expand wind and solar power, to harden power lines against extreme weather, to integrate batteries and electric vehicles and to build out microgrids. Arizona did not participate and needs to utilize these programs to reduce ratepayer costs.
What can you do to reduce your electricity costs?
Vote only for candidates that publish measurable commitments to reduce your utility bills and require the utilities to take actions that reduce water usage, keep utility profits in line with those earned by Arizona businesses, allow and encourage people to install their own solar and battery systems, and encourage Community Choice Aggregation (Programs that allow local governments to procure power on behalf of their residents, businesses, and municipal accounts from an alternative supplier while still receiving transmission and distribution service from their existing utility provider).
If the new ACC implemented these opportunities, our State and all ratepayers would be better served than they are now. Our utilities are competent, can and will improve our power grid with appropriate leadership and guidance.
Follow these steps to easily submit a letter to the editor or guest opinion to the Arizona Daily Star.
Terry Finefrock has been a resident of Tucson area since 1956, is a retired corporate director, established the first 1 megawatt utility scale solar system in Southern Arizona (2010) and has provided testimony/comment to the ACC.
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January 13, 2024 at 09:00PM
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Local opinion: Time to change the Corporation Commission - Arizona Daily Star
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