Coming on the heels of two major Arizona Public Service-led bills (HB2679 and HB2201) signed into law by Governor Katie Hobbs earlier this week that organizations, including the Arizona Public Interest Research Group, opposed for reasons including a lack of “tangible, financial benefits for consumers”, 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.
7 thoughts on “APS provides notice it wants to increase rates (again)”
The rich get richer and the poor just keep getting poorer.
APS will squeeze every single last cent out of their customers and have been doing so for years. Big company with big bucks and during a time when people are struggling and of course just before summer, APS is at it again. It’s people like Hobbs who could care less about the little guy because Hobbs is a democrat and they want everyone to depend on government handouts so that the government can control the people.
Competition would solve the problem of unilateral price controls. APS needs to be reined in by competition in true Capitalist fashion. Instead, true Marxist control is what rules prices.
On top of the recent 40% increase? The AZ Corporation Commission is useless.
The sad part is that the Corporation Commission will just rubberstamp it through regardless of how badly it hurts the people that elected them.
It’s obvious that the Arizona Corporation Commission and Hobbs are in bed together. It doesn’t surprise me that Hobbs would allow a yet another rate increase because she is a democrat and her thinking is like Elizabeth Smotherton said, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and that is Hobbs thinking.
Let me get this straight. Incandescent bulbs have been banned and LED bulbs are all you can find. LED bulbs are meant to save energy, right? So we all go out and buy LED bulbs (rather expensive) to save money, right? Now APS wants to make up their loss by raising out rates, right? So who wins, not the consumer but once again big bucks APS wins.
Comments are closed.