School districts across the country, including Arizona, are turning to solar Distributed Generation (DG) power plants located at their facilities to cut their electricity costs.  With the money they’re saving, without any burden to the taxpayer, they are able to retain more teachers and programs in the face of budget cuts and diminishing options to find other cost reductions.  Beyond the environmental and other indirect benefits, some schools are using solar installations to teach kids about renewable energy.

Today a battle ensues at the Arizona Corporation Commission over DG policy.  In the rate case docket E-01345A-12-0290 currently before the Commission, Arizona Public Service, Tucson Electric Power and Unisource Energy Services are claiming the benefits of DG fall short of the value they provide under the current “Net Metering” rules that require full retail credit for every kilowatt hour delivered back to the grid by DG power plants.  DG supporters counter with extensive studies of their own, which identify numerous assumptions and criteria made by the Utility Companies that misrepresent the value of DG.  These studies conclude DG provides 1.5 times the value of the full retail credit required under the current policy.

The actual benefit provided by DG is likely somewhere in the middle between the two positions, the Utility Companies are promoting continued reliance on their sole source options and are aggressively funding the current effort to change policy in a manner they know will eliminate the viability of DG alternatives.  DG supporters are organizing grass roots support and making the case for opening the market to competition and alternatives which also provide indirect benefits, the primary of which, is “Clean Energy”.

The Utility Companies argument seems disingenuous 7 years after creating the program.  Their recent success in pursuing a rate increase because of lost revenues due to Energy Efficiency, DG and Net Metering programs flies in the face of the stated purpose of the program, “keeping overall energy costs down for everyone.”  The actual result penalized those who did not pursue the aforementioned programs because the Utility Companies failed to fulfill their obligation, “mitigating the need to build more generation and transmission infrastructure.”

In light of this deliberation and another, “Deregulation” just getting started, it has never been more important than it is now for all Arizona stakeholders to become aware, informed and involved in the energy debate.