APPROACH
To achieve and sustain a successful solar future for APS, our approach offers three key strategies:
Applying the power of collaboration to build support for the APS Solar Distributed Energy (DE) Study recommendations among a broad range of stakeholders through education, consensus building and transparent engagement
Combining business acumen with technical expertise to provide a reliable methodology for identifying, evaluating and achieving the potential benefits of distributed solar energy resources
Developing a winning business case that allows the responsibilities of APS to its shareholders and ratepayers to be met while making meaningful progress towards achieving the Renewable Energy Standard objectives in a financially and socially responsible manner
The State of Arizona is graced with an abundance of sunlight and stands uniquely positioned to create a successful solar future. Gaining full advantage is technically complex as well as economically and politically challenging. It will require solutions that cut across multiple stakeholders and recognize the needs of customers, Arizona Public Service (APS) and the communities it serves. Successfully implementing technologies that convert solar energy directly into energy, or through conversion to hot water, necessitates a clear understanding of the impacts on the transmission, distribution, metering and planning systems of the utility.
For APS to successfully utilize the abundant solar resources available in Arizona, in addition to maintaining a robust and reliable system, it will be necessary to understand the technical issues in bringing significant distributed energy resources on line. This will require the development of a solid business case approach including program design, rate-making, understanding consumer behavior, as well as reliable (and achievable) resource estimates. These efforts need to be supported by a regulatory recovery process and must be built upon teaming and collaboration with multiple stakeholder groups.
