Coming on the heels of two major Arizona Public Service-led bills signed into law this week that organizations, including the Arizona Public Interest Research Group, opposed, APS provided notice yesterday that it intends to apply for a rate increase on or about June 13, 2025.
“As APS continues to strongly advocate for policies that are likely to burst financial gains for shareholders, the household budgets of many APS ratepayers are being busted”, stated Diane E. Brown, Executive Director of the Arizona PIRG Education Fund.
Brown said that APS is entitled to recover prudent costs and acknowledges load growth, supply chain shortages, and other factors are legitimate components of a rate case; however, she noted that APS shareholders have yielded hundreds of millions of dollars in profits to the detriment of their customers and need to be reigned in with expenses to ensure rates are “just and reasonable.” To protect ratepayers, especially those already struggling, the Arizona PIRG Education Fund urges APS to “ask for what they need, not what they want.”
APS’s rate application includes their intent to propose a Formula Rate mechanism, a mechanism that the Arizona PIRG Education Fund, AARP Arizona, Residential Utility Consumer Office, and others have cautioned have worked well for shareholders, but not ratepayers, in other states. In the APS filing, they mention the potential benefits of an annual rate adjustment but fail to spell out the potential downfalls.
APS states that it will also propose modifications to high load customers, including data centers, to make sure they are “apportioned fairly and in a manner that does not place undue financial burden on residential and small business customers.” Brown said APS should follow the lead of Salt River Project, who worked with the Arizona PIRG Education Fund and other entities in their recent price process, to ensure large load customers are paying their own way.
Brown said the Arizona PIRG Education Fund is encouraged to see the utility continue to recognize the importance of limited-income programs and applauds the reception to input and related advancements APS has made when it comes to customer service, education, and outreach, noting there is always room for additional improvements to be made.
The Arizona PIRG Education Fund intends to analyze the rate filing upon APS’ submission to the Arizona Corporation Commission. APS requests that its application be approved for new rates to become effective no earlier than July 8, 2026.