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Solar advocates continue to fight fee on utility bills

Rooftop solar panels
WikiCommons
Rooftop solar panels

Solar advocates continue to fight what they call a “discriminatory” fee added to the utility bills of Arizona Public Service customers who have solar panels.

The “grid access charge” is a $2-3 monthly fee for customers with an average rooftop solar system. It was instituted last March and, after advocacy groups protested, upheld in a hearing in November.

The Arizona Solar Energy Industries Association, Vote Solar and the Attorney General’s office filed a request for a re-hearing earlier this month. Autumn Johnson is the association’s director.

"The only customers that are being charged for power that they don’t use is solar customers. And so it’s punitive. And we think that it’s discriminatory."

Johnson adds she’s concerned other utilities will adopt what she calls a “flawed methodology” for calculating the fee, and that there’s no cap. APS staff testified the fee should be around eighty dollars a month.

APS and its regulatory body, the Arizona Corporation Commission, declined to give interviews. In a written statement, an APS spokesperson said customers with rooftop solar pay less than APS’ cost to serve them, and the fee is required to ensure solar customers are “paying their fair share.”

If the rehearing is not granted, advocates plan to take the question to the Arizona Court of Appeals.

For more information, here's the Arizona Corporation Commission's news release on upholding the fee and the filings protesting it.

Melissa joined KNAU's team in 2015 to report on science, health, and the environment. Her work has appeared nationally on NPR and been featured on Science Friday. She grew up in Tucson, Arizona, where she fell in love with the ecology and geology of the Sonoran desert.