Arizona regulator wants to adopt 80% clean energy plan before gas moratorium ends

Dive Brief: The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) opened a new docket in August to evaluate the Arizona Energy Modernization Plan (AEMP) and to refine specific language in the associated tariff, but on Thursday Commissioner Andy Tobin urged regulators to accelerate and complete the process before a moratorium on new natural gas plants expires at the end of this year. Tobin said he hopes to " celebrate the effective date " of the plan Feb. 14, 2019, Arizona Statehood Day — only six months from the commission’s vote to open the new docket. That would be quick for an ACC rulemaking proceeding, which can take up to a year. The new energy strategy would require utilities to supply 80% renewable or nuclear power by 2050 . The Clean Resource Energy Standard and Tariff also includes a 3 GW storage target utilities must reach by 2030. Dive Insight: Arizona regulators are wrestling with how to modernize the state’s electricity grid. In March, Arizona regulators denied the 15-year Integrated Resource Plans filed by the state’s investor-owned utilities, directing them to consider more renewables and less gas-fired energy. Then the ACC went a step farther and instituted a nine-month moratorium on gas projects […]

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