Arizona Capitol Times reports that the clean energy industry may face new challenges as republicans will fill all five seats on the Arizona Corporation Commission in 2025. However, many clean energy advocates, including United's Michael Barrio, are looking forward to new opportunities to engage with the commission on the benefits of clean energy.
Topics: United In The News, Arizona, Michael Barrio
Due to significant federal funding for advanced energy initiatives, Arizona stands to be one of the biggest beneficiaries in the country. United's Michael Barrio authored an opinion piece for the Daily Independent, praising the economic gains advanced energy has produced in Arizona and highlights the importance of continued growth in the advanced energy industry.
Topics: Federal Policy, United In The News, Arizona, Michael Barrio
Without warning, ACC staff proposed a new charge only for solar customers.
PHOENIX, AZ—The national business association Advanced Energy United is urging the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) to vote against the new solar surcharge proposed in the Recommended Opinion and Order (ROO) in Arizona Public Service (APS)’s rate case.
The surcharge imposes a fee that exclusively and unfairly targets solar customers. This fee would increase solar ratepayers’ monthly bills 15%, adding $3-4 more per month compared to non-solar customers.
Topics: State Policy, Press Releases, Arizona, Michael Barrio
Arizona Corporation Commission voted 4-1 to begin the process of repealing the state’s energy efficiency and renewable standards.
PHOENIX, AZ. – The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC), in a majority 4-1 vote, voted to begin dismantling the Renewable Energy Standard & Tariff (REST) and the Energy Efficiency (EE) Standards, which have been in place since 2006 and 2010. Reversing these rules would curtail job creation, negatively impact grid resilience, and create regulatory uncertainty for businesses looking to invest in the state. Additionally, reversing long-standing policy signals to businesses that Arizona doesn’t want their jobs and investments, negatively impacting the state’s economy.
Topics: State Policy, Press Releases, Arizona, Michael Barrio
In an opinion piece for the Arizona Daily Star, former director of the Maricopa County Department of Public Health Bob England and Advanced Energy United's Arizona state lead Michael Barrio highlight the importance of creating a regional transmission organization in the Western U.S. to strengthen and broaden the grid to better withstand extreme weather and avoid large-scale blackouts.
A study published in late May projected that if Arizona’s electric grid fails during a summer heat wave (like the one we are in right now), it could lead to more than 12,000 deaths and send nearly 800,000 Phoenix residents to the hospital for heat-related illness. And that’s just within the City of Phoenix, not counting the rest of the state. Those are astronomical numbers, and especially unsettling given that the past eight years have been the hottest on record and the next eight will likely be even hotter.
Topics: United In The News, Arizona, Michael Barrio
RTO Insider examines the possibility of a Western RTO, citing Advanced Energy United's support for this region's hopes to develop a west-wide wholesale market.
PORTLAND, Ore. — The competition for organized markets in the West grew Friday as the Bonneville Power Administration launched a process to choose between day-ahead markets proposed by CAISO and SPP and regulators from five Western states urged the establishment of a new, independent RTO covering the entire West.
“This group proposes the creation of an entity that could serve as a means for delivering a market that includes all states in the Western Interconnection, including California, with independent governance,” regulators from Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington wrote to the chairs of the Western Interstate Energy Board (WIEB) and the Committee on Regional Electric Power Cooperation (CREPC).
The entity “could provide a full range of regional transmission operator services, utilizing a contract for services” with CAISO including eventual “assumption” of CAISO’s proposed Extended Day Ahead Market (EDAM) and its real-time Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM).
Topics: United In The News, New Mexico, Western RTO, California, Arizona
AZ Mirror examines the likelihood of summer power outages and regulator issues, quoting Leah Rubin Shen's perspective on states' responsibility to build resiliency towards ever-rising temperatures and summer heat waves.
As much as two-thirds of North America could face shortages of electricity this summer in the event of severe and protracted heat, according to the regulator in charge of setting and enforcing standards for the electric grid.
“Increased, rapid deployment of wind, solar and batteries have made a positive impact,” said Mark Olson, manager of reliability assessments for the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), in a news release. “However, generator retirements continue to increase the risks associated with extreme summer temperatures, which factors into potential supply shortages in the western two-thirds of North America if summer temperatures spike.”
Topics: United In The News, Leah Rubin Shen, Arizona
WASHINGTON, DC, May 17, 2023 — Today the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) released its annual summer reliability assessment warning Western states that they are in for another summer of elevated risk of blackouts due to extreme heat in 2023. NERC issued a similar warning last May, before record heat waves strained energy supplies in Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, and the Pacific Northwest in September.
Topics: Press Releases, Colorado, Leah Rubin Shen, Amisha Rai, Western RTO, California, Arizona, Nevada
National business association thanks policymakers for bipartisanship and for embracing economic benefits of advanced energy.
PHOENIX, AZ, May 12, 2023 — National business group Advanced Energy United commends Governor Hobbs and the Arizona Legislature for their bipartisan efforts in passing a state budget that works to prioritize the immediate needs of Arizonans while continuing to invest in the state's advanced energy infrastructure.
Topics: State Policy, Press Releases, Arizona, Michael Barrio
The new state office will handle energy, water and land issues and steer policy for the state at a time of unprecedented opportunity.
PHOENIX, Feburary 23, 2023 – Today, national business group Advanced Energy United (formerly Advanced Energy Economy) applauded Governor Katie Hobbs for creating an Office of Resiliency to handle energy, water, and land issues for the state and congratulated Maren Mahoney, who has been named its director.
Topics: Arizona