By Ryan Randazzo | Arizona Republic
State utility regulators on Tuesday launched a new inquiry into the rates and profits at Arizona Public Service Co. after almost two years of customer complaints and a formal challenge to the company’s prices.
The opening of a new rate case could take more than a year to resolve and end up with APS rates going down — or up — depending on what regulators find.
Regulators on the Arizona Corporation Commission last approved a rate hike for APS in 2017, and the description of that increase as averaging $6 a month or 4.5 percent on residential customers is widely disputed.
Tuesday’s meeting showed the five elected commissioners are increasingly frustrated with the state’s biggest utility, but that they have few options to make changes other than a lengthy rate case.
“The people of Arizona in APS rate territory are sick and tired of being sick and tired,” Commissioner Sandra Kennedy said when casting her vote.
