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On July 20, 2016, seven candidates for the Office of Corporation Commissioner (5 Republicans; 2 Democrats) met at Rio Salado College Conference Center to field questions on their views of major issues confronting Arizona utilities and how they would undertake the responsibilities of regulating them if elected. Three of these candidates will be elected in the November general election to serve a 4-year term on the 5-member ACC.

2016 ACC Candidates Respond to Questions

AIC recently asked the seven candidates running for the ACC to tell us about their views on several issues facing regulation of energy, water and telecommunications utilities in Arizona.  In our request to the candidates, we told them we would post their written responses (un-edited) to the seven questions on the AIC website. 

Here are their questions and their responses:

APS Reaches Major Solar Milestone; Tops Gigawatt of Solar Energy

Diverse Solar Portfolio Benefits All Customers

– This summer, APS surpassed one gigawatt of solar energy capacity, becoming the only utility outside of California to achieve this milestone. When generating at full power, this capacity meets the partial daytime needs of 250,000 Arizona homes. The company’s total investment in solar energy is approximately $2 billion.
 
APS’s solar portfolio is almost an even split between rooftop systems and grid-scale projects, with 551 megawatts coming from rooftop systems and 499 megawatts coming from grid-scale projects.
 
“APS customers benefit from the fact that when you include energy from APS’s other renewable energy sources — wind, geothermal, biomass and biogas – and the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, nearly half of all the power on APS’s system is carbon-free,” said , APS Vice President of Resource Management. “A cleaner energy mix is a top priority for us, with solar playing an important role.”

SRP Approves $100 Million Gas-Plant Purchase

 Ryan Randazzo, The Republic | azcentral.com 11:46 a.m. MST September 20, 2016

Salt River Project's elected board of directors approved spending $100 million to purchase a power block at the Gila River Power Station natural-gas-fired plant near Gila Bend.

The purchase was approved at a Sept. 12 board meeting.

The plant is owned by Entegra Power of Tampa, which sold another unit at Gila River to Tucson Electric Power last year. The plant was built by different companies in the early 2000s to be used as a merchant plant selling power on the wholesale market.

Apple's Secret Solar Plant in Arizona Could Power 12,500 Homes

 Ryan Randazzo, The Republic | azcentral.com 7:51 a.m. MST September 21, 2016

Apple Inc. has built a 300-acre solar power plant in Florence to make up for the electricity used in its Mesa data center, and Salt River Project finally released details of the secretive project Tuesday.

Apple wants its customers to know that when they ask the Siri app on their phones for directions, they aren't contributing to global climate change. The company has a goal of generating enough clean energy from multiple facilities to compensate for the power its global factories and other operations draw from the power grid.

Apple said in 2015 when it announced its command center project in Mesa that it would run the facility with solar power, but until now, the Cupertino, Calif.-based iPhone maker hasn't provided any details of how it would accomplish that.

Utility Regulators Approve Money for APS Fight

 Ryan Randazzo, The Republic | azcentral.com 6:28 p.m. MST September 15, 2016

Arizona's utility regulators on Thursday approved hiring an outside attorney to represent Corporation Commissioner Robert Burns, who is being sued by Arizona Public Service Co. because the company doesn't want to disclose its political spending.

Last month, Burns issued subpoenas to APS and its parent company seeking information related to their political spending. Burns and others suspect APS and Pinnacle West Capital Corp. are the source of $3.2 million in 2014 that helped elect Republicans Tom Forese and Doug Little to the commission.

Pinnacle West owns APS and virtually all of its income is derived from the regulated utility that serves more than 1 million customers.

Last Friday, APS in turn filed a motion to cancel those subpoenas and charge Burns for the utility's attorney fees.

Energy Initiative Awaits Nevada Voters

Posted: Sunday, September 11, 2016 11:51 pm |

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Discussion is picking up on the Energy Choice Initiative, with more people taking public positions on the ballot measure that aims to deregulate electrical service in Nevada. Here are things to know about Question 3: