Utility Dive covered the AEE and Arizona Public Service (APS) announcement of project collaboration to support the utility's goal of producing 100% clean energy by 2050. The piece quotes AEE's Lisa Frantzis. and notes the 13 AEE members participating. Read excerpts below and the entire UD piece here (This story was also covered by PV Magazine). 

Arizona Public Service has turned to national clean energy business group Advanced Energy Economy for help reaching the utility's 100% clean energy goal by 2050, which will involve shuttering both the Four Corners and Cholla coal-fired power plants. Through the Arizona Clean Energy Future initiative, announced Thursday, APS will receive assistance from 13 companies focused on electrifying transportation, grid flexibility, expanding low-carbon generation capacity and maximizing clean energy use. The utility is also using the partnership to consider carbon capture and modular nuclear generation technologies...

Right now the clean energy partnership with AEE will not cost customers anything, but future pilots and projects could be included in the utility's Integrated Resource Plans, Demand Side Management Plans, and Renewable Energy Standards, according to APS officials. In the utility's ongoing rate case, however, observers say the Navajo Nation could ask for hundreds of millions or more. The Navajo previously asked the Arizona Corporation Commission to consider having Tucson Electric Power pay them $100,000 per megawatt for coal capacity the utility owned and which provided jobs and revenue to the tribe. According to the Western Clean Energy Campaign, similar math could mean a request of $200 million or more from APS...

The utility will need to utilize a variety of new clean energy technologies as it moves towards providing all carbon-free electricity. Companies involved in the APS-AEE partnership include [AEE members]: Arcadia, EnergyHub, EVgo, Form Energy, Highland Electric Transportation, Landis+Gyr, Modern Energy, NuScale Power, Pattern Energy, Recurve, Siemens, sPower and Uplight.

The companies "are putting their own time and resources into this," AEE Senior Managing Director Lisa Frantzis told Utility Dive. The partnership is a "unique model that could be replicated in other jurisdictions."

Right now APS and AEE are collaborating in three main work groups focused on transportation electrification, grid flexibility and low-carbon generation. The parties are aiming for a draft plan in July and a final proposal in August.

"The goal is to not think in silos, but as a portfolio of solutions," Frantzis said. "Everything is on the table at this point..."

Read the entire UD piece here (This story was also covered in PV Magazine).