Become a PUF Member Organization

Arizona

Regulators Can Win the Trifecta with Residential Demand Charges

Advanced metering and demand charges give efficient and equitable price signals to customers.

The wide deployment of smart meters gives regulatory policy-makers a rare opportunity to change residential rate design. This can be done in a way that improves economic efficiency, and utility consumer and shareholder equity. Here we provide ten questions that should be asked by policy-makers, as well as some guidance in deriving the answers.
Byline: 

Ross C. Hemphill and Kenneth W. Costello

Read Entire Article

Solar Consumer Education and Protection

Consumers should embrace clean energy alternatives only after educating themselves on the technologies and necessary commitments

Consumer Counts: It is critical that stakeholders in the energy space maintain an open dialogue with consumers and create and uphold good, consistent standards, education and protections.
Byline: 

Sheri Givens

Read Entire Article

Response to Cicchetti/Wellinghoff Re: Net Metering

Letters to the Editor: A response to the article by Charles Cicchetti and Jon Wellinghoff in our December 2015 issue

A major mistake is the claim, under net metering, customers who generate power with rooftop solar simply “bank” or “park” their extra electricity with their utility, retaining ownership rights.
Byline: 

Ashley Brown

Read Entire Article

Action by Choice

Time-varying rates is an effective way to satisfy customer demands.

In the 21st century economy pivoted on customer choice, opt-in is the path to tread in the provision of time varying rates to electricity customers.
Byline: 

Chris King & Bonnie Datta

Read Entire Article

Solar Shines As Regulatory Battles Abound

A tough legal and financial terrain is confronting producers, utilities and regulators.

State commissions are challenged to find the sweet spot whereby utilities can afford to maintain their systems and homeowners are motivated to go green.
Byline: 

Ken Silverstein

Read Entire Article

There and Back Again

Why a residential demand rate developed 40 years ago is increasingly relevant today.

Why not design a rate that allocates the higher system cost to customers based on their actual energy demand?
Byline: 

Leland Snook and Meghan Grabel

Read Entire Article

The Driving Ambition of Elon Musk

An electric car in every driveway, a battery in every garage.

Tesla’s Elon Musk is driving the electric car off the lot and onto the premises of America’s electric utilities, proposing to build and sell energy storage batteries on both a residential and grid-wide scale – ideas that the chief executive will fully flesh out at the Edison Electric Institute’s annual meeting in New Orleans this June.
Byline: 

Ken Silverstein

Read Entire Article

NRC Requires Additional Earthquake Risk Analysis for Two Western U.S. Reactors

Submitted by aburr on Fri, 2015-05-29 13:42

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission set a June 2017 deadline for two of three Western U.S. operating nuclear power plants to conduct in-depth analyses of their updated earthquake risk. The NRC is requiring Columbia (Benton County, Wash.) and Diablo Canyon (Avila Beach, Calif.) to submit their detailed risk analysis by June 30, 2017. The NRC continues to examine information from Palo Verde (Wintersburg, Ariz.); if the agency concludes the plant needs the in-depth risk analysis it must complete the work by Dec. 31, 2020.

APS Completes One of the Largest Transmission Construction Projects in the West

Submitted by aburr on Fri, 2015-05-29 13:38

Arizona Public Service completed work on one of the largest transmission construction projects in the west - a 500-kV power line that connects Phoenix to Yuma. The 110-mile transmission line runs from the Hassayampa substation (near the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station) to the North Gila substation in Yuma. Called HANG2, the $200 million project is the second route connecting the Valley to Yuma. Construction planning for the HANG2 line began more than a decade ago, as Southwest Arizona's population began to rapidly expand.