By Luige del Puerto and Rachel Leingang | Arizona Capitol Times
A more muted deliberation involving Arizona’s biggest utility is underway at the Arizona Corporation Commission, this time over a program that allows eight major energy consumers to purchase less-expensive power from a third-party source.
The consumers include the city of Phoenix and big firms such as Walmart.
The utility, Arizona Public Service, contracts with the third-party power provider and passes on the charges, plus some minimal administrative costs, to the companies. They leverage the size of their energy needs to get cheaper energy, resulting in significant savings for the companies and, according to APS, $10 million in losses annually.
