TEP is a for-profit monopoly (guaranteed no competition). In return for this very low risk investment with guaranteed customers, TEP's investors should receive a low return on equity (profit) closer to the interest paid on Federal Bonds (about 4%). That's how the market is supposed to work.
But the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC), whose job is to keep utilities like TEP from charging too much, has let TEP raise their profits and rates far more than inflation for decades! TEP now gets 9.5% profit and wants it raised to 10%!
The online "Institute for Local Self-Reliance" has a calculator to see how much your household is overpaying yearly. In Tucson, if you pay $100/month, the result is $13.50/month ($162/yr). That's the amount you are paying above and beyond the actual cost (including a 4% profit for TEP investors) so TEP investors can get almost risk-free ever-increasing profits.
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Lee Stanfield
East side
Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star.
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