Arizona Opinion: Keep Arizona’s high-voltage electric grid strong and competitive

As a former member of the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC), my focus was promoting economic growth through forward-looking and market-driven energy policies that benefitted Arizona utility ratepayers.

I took this service seriously and saw, first-hand, the tremendous impact decisions — good and bad — made by regulators have on Arizona’s economy. The policies I helped put in place over the years resulted in significant economic and environmental benefits to all of us.

That is why I’m concerned that the current Tucson Electric Power (TEP) transmission tariff proposal ACC staff may be supporting would hurt you, the Arizona ratepayer.

Like many states in the Southwest, Arizona is experiencing an energy transition. We have done a lot to promote a diverse energy sector that includes wind, solar and other clean technologies through a reliable grid that protects ratepayers. Transmission infrastructure is being developed to get power across Arizona. All of this is providing good paying jobs and millions of dollars of tax revenues for state and local governments.

Keeping Arizona’s high-voltage transmission grid cost-effective and efficient is critical to this boom. An efficient transmission system provides an incentive for renewable companies and industrials to use our grid.

But continued success is not guaranteed. Policy changes can have serious negative consequences, and a proposal by one of Arizona’s utilities threatens the progress Arizona has made with the regional grid and clean, affordable electricity.

TEP is engaged in a case pending before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington, D.C., to suddenly reverse a 22-year policy and dramatically change the way it charges those who use its high-voltage transmission system. The effect of TEP’s proposal would be to make it substantially more expensive to move energy across Arizona’s grid. Charging too much to use our grid could jeopardize additional transmission revenue to offset your power bill.

Additionally, TEP’s proposal would unfairly force some customers outside Tucson to subsidize others in Tucson. Arizonians don’t do that to each other.

This policy change would be bad for free markets and interstate commerce. It would be bad for renewable energy development. And it would be bad for customers forced to pay the costs of local utility infrastructure they can’t use or benefit from.

Companies looking to invest and gain access to Arizona’s transmission grid stand ready to inject billions of dollars into our economy and lower our power bills. Drastically changing these rules will add unnecessary barriers, stymie this investment and hurt Arizona’s economy.

I call on elected officials at the ACC to encourage TEP to resolve this issue without making drastic policy changes that frustrate renewable energy development and cause some customers to unfairly subsidize others.