STUDY PLAN
The Project Team will provide a comprehensive program designed to achieve a successful and sustainable solar future for APS. While “success” has not yet been defined, it is reasonable to assume that measures of success will include the deployment of Solar DE. Solar DE makes meaningful contributions to APS Renewable Energy Standard (RES) goals, a reasonable rate mechanism that encourages Solar DE development. The costs of this development are born by those who benefit, environmental and social impacts that are positive and reflect the value of employing renewable resources, and tools and methodologies that can be employed by APS staff to measure impacts and benefits without unduly impinging on other staff priorities. To achieve and sustain these measures of success, our Study Plan applies three key strategies:
- Applying the power of collaboration to forge support for the APS Solar 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 supports the responsibility APS has to its shareholders and ratepayers, while making meaningful progress towards achieving the Renewable Energy Standard objectives in a financially and socially responsible manner
Our Study Plan is organized into five tasks. In Task 1, we will design, implement and manage a collaborative stakeholder process that will forge a consensus-based characterization of Solar DE technologies and market constructs that will be used in the detailed analysis of costs and benefits. In Tasks 2, 3, and 4, we will apply our business acumen and technical expertise to provide tools and methodologies to define the value of Solar DE through a balanced consideration of impacts, costs and benefits. In Task 5, we provide a winning business case comprised of deployment strategies, cost recovery strategies and benefit allocation mechanisms to ensure that the desired success can be achieved and sustained.
