The Arizona Corporation Commission Utilities Division has requested the opening of a rulemaking to consider potential (and possibly broad) revisions to the state’s “Energy Rules,” as directed by Commissioners at a recent meeting. The rulemaking relates to prior discussions that took place surrounding Commissioner Tobin’s proposed Arizona Energy Modernization Plan (filed in Case E-00000Q-16-0289). The scope of this rulemaking encompasses virtually all aspects of the electricity sector (as well as energy efficiency standards for gas utilities) on a current and forward-looking basis, though the precise details of what will be considered are not well defined. For instance, it is unclear to what degree issues related to rate design and ratemaking (e.g., cost of service evaluation, decoupling, performance-based ratemaking, etc.) will be considered, though the very broad scope suggests that they could be.
The specific areas of inquiry identified in the rulemaking docket request, many of which relate to existing Commissioner-initiated investigations on specific topics, include:
- Renewable Energy Standard and Tariff rules
- Electric Energy Efficiency Standards rules
- Gas Utility Energy Efficiency Standards rules
- Net Metering rules
- Resource Planning and Procurement rules
- Retail Electric Competition rules
- Electric vehicles
- Interconnection of distributed generation facilities
- Blockchain technology
- Technological developments in generation and delivery of energy
- Forest bioenergy
- Baseload security
- The statutory Biennial Transmission Assessment
- Other energy-related topics