Group Seeks Expansion Of Proposed Competitive Supply Program At Tucson Electric Power To Include All Customers

The Arizona Chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) has filed comments at the Arizona Corporation Commission seeking the expansion of a proposed new competitive supply program for large C&I customers at Tucson Electric Power to all customers.

EnergyChoiceMatters.com had exclusively first reported details of TEP's proposed Market Pricing-Experimental (MP-EX) or Rider 18, which would be available for customers who have a peak load of 3000 kW or more at a single service point and are served under rates LPS-TOU or LPS-TOU-HV. In short, MP-EX would be a "buy-through" program allowing eligible customers to direct TEP to procure wholesale power from the customer's selected provider, and then convey such power to the customer.

See more details on the MP-EX program in our prior story here

RLC specifically requested that the ACC modify the proposed Market Price Experimental (MP-EX) tariff to enable all customer classes to participate and allow customers to aggregate loads and establish solar Power Purchase Agreements (PPA)

RLC asked that the ACC: "Modify the proposed TEP Market Price Experimental (MP-EX) tariff to be used by all customer classes, enable customer aggregation of loads, customer establishment of contracts with Solar Services providers(SSA/PPA) [sic], delivery of the electricity to TEP distribution grid by the PPA provider for delivery of a defined amount of electricity(kwh) [sic] to designated customer meters, for a 'Wheeling' charge that should not exceed current distribution cost/kwh, APS AG-1 charged 1c/kWh [sic]."

"This practice is not experimental, there are many TEP customers that have established Solar System PPA's on the TEP system, and TEP administrative and management costs/involvement would be less than MP-EX. The systems can also include energy storage to reduce demand fluctuations and evening transition from solar to utility electricity generation," RLC said