PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Arizona Public Service (APS) electric customers with solar panels will still need to pay a relatively new monthly fee after the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) voted in favor of the grid access charge.

Commissioners reaffirmed the fee in a 3-1 decision on Tuesday. The APS grid access charge (GAC) was approved in February and came under fire after opponents said it discriminated against residential solar customers by increasing rates.

“In general, all costs related to such services should be equitably distributed to each class of service. As demonstrated… residential solar customers are paying less than 70% of the costs to serve them,” Judge Belinda Martin said.

Proponents of the upgraded charges say there is a cost shift in place now and that the restructured charges will balance costs between the two types of customers.

“$61 million were imposed on APS’ residential customers that do not have solar. That means about one million customers have been paying the bill for those that have solar on their homes,” said Jim O’Connor, an ACC chairman.

APS says the fee is a fixed charge that helps recover the costs of maintaining services and equipment. Regulators say that solar customers rely on APS’ power grid to provide electricity when their systems aren’t working, which is why the increase is justified.

Still, groups like the Arizona Solar Energy Industries Association (AriSEIA) disagreed, saying that utility provider miscalculated the cost of service to solar customers.

“APS testified that if the ACC eliminated the solar fees, the difference would be $.25 to residential customers. Despite the evidence, the ACC will penalize solar customers several dollars per month and approved an amendment to increase it in APS’ next rate case, which is anticipated to be filed in 2025,” the association said in a news release after the ruling.

“The evidentiary record makes it clear that solar customers are subsidizing non-solar customers and yet APS and the ACC continue to penalize solar customers with unfounded and discriminatory fees,” said Autumn Johnson, the executive director of AriSEIA.

In a news release, the ACC said critics of the opinion have “mischaracterized the GAC as a ‘solar tax’ on about 184,000 Arizonans with rooftop solar.”

“I understand no one wants to pay more on their bills, but this is about parity and fairness for all ratepayers,” said Commissioner Kevin Thompson. “I hope there’s a day when homeowners can live completely free from the grid, but we are not there now. I believe all costs related to providing service should be equally and fairly distributed among all classes of customers, and we have a duty to address cost shifts and subsidies when they exist.”

AriSEIA said an appeal is likely early next year.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2024 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.

The Arizona Cardinals will be in the Week 17 spotlight.

The Cardinals’ road game against the division-leading Los Angeles Rams has been scheduled for 6:15 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 28, in a matchup at SoFi Stadium in LA.

The game will be televised nationally on NFL Network and locally on NBC.

The Saturday slate will kick off with the Los Angeles Chargers at the New England Patriots, followed by the Denver Broncos at the Cincinnati Bengals with the Cardinals-Rams matchup capping the tripleheader. Like the Cardinals-Rams game, the other two games will also be broadcast on NFL Network.

The Saturday schedule:

Chargers at Patriots, 11 a.m. MST

Broncos at Bengals, 2:30 p.m. MST

Cardinals at Rams, 6:15 p.m. MST

For the Cardinals, the Saturday night game could have significant playoff implications. They are one game behind the Rams in the NFC West standings. Depending on results this week, a win could put them ahead of Los Angeles or draw them even. Plus, a win would give the Cardinals the tiebreaker, having already crushed the Rams, 41-10, back in Week 2.

Two other games under consideration were the Colts at Giants and Falcons at Commanders, both of which move to Sunday, Dec. 29.

The Falcons-Commanders game flexes into the Sunday Night Football slot, replacing Dolphins-Browns.

The Colts-Giants game will be played Sunday afternoon in New York.

(This story has been updated to add information.)

Men’s basketball was supposed to save us.

Ranked ninth heading into the season, Tommy Lloyd’s team was going to allow us to move on from a disaster of a football season and enjoy plenty of wins, big-time matchups and hopefully a deep tournament run.

Nine games into the season there have been few wins, no big-time victories and the tournament seems like anything but a guarantee.

The good news for Arizona is that despite its 4-5 non-conference record, one whose latest loss was a game the Wildcats coughed up in Phoenix against UCLA, there is still time to turn things around.

The bad news is that up to now the team has not shown much to make you think it is capable of righting the ship and rolling through the Big 12.

This is where Lloyd comes in. More specifically, this is where his abilities as a coach — to motivate, to tinker, to create — will be shown. Or not.

It’s clear this year’s Cats are lacking in some key areas. Their three-point shooting has been inconsistent at best and there is no true low-post scoring threat. Rim protection is tough to come by and the high-low game that has defined Arizona’s attack is unavailable at the moment.

What the team does have is a dynamic back court, athleticism and enough depth to in theory be able to find a lineup or lineups that work.

It’s on Lloyd and his staff to figure out how to use it.

The coach said as much after Saturday’s loss to the Bruins, especially in light of Mo Krivas’ latest injury troubles.

“Obviously with big Mo not playing we kind of are figuring out on the fly how this team is going to look going forward and trying to tweak some things,” he said. “Maybe see this team has some other strengths. So I just didn’t feel like we had a great, maybe not the players’ fault, but I just didn’t think we have a great understanding of how we wanted to attack and play today, pressure situations. Obviously, we gotta continue to work on that and build that certainty and that identity within the guys now that it looks like Mo is going to be out for a little bit.”

Certainty and identity, two things that every good team needs and both of which are lacking with this group. It is missing toughness, grit and the ability to close out games.

Arizona under Lloyd certainly had an identity the last three seasons. But now? Arizona’s offense is ranked 37th in KenPom. The Wildcats are struggling from the outside and are averaging just 15.4 assists per game, which is tied for 102nd in the country.

Something has not been working.

Known for offense over the last few years, if this season’s team is to reach its potential things will have to look different. For the first time since Lloyd arrived there is no dominant or consistent low-post scoring presence, and further there is no hybrid, Swiss Army Knife-wing like Pelle Larsson who could do anything and everything on the court.

What the team does have though is the reigning Pac-12 Player of the Year who, as a fifth-year senior Caleb Love has the kind of experience coaches dream of. It also has a point guard in Jaden Bradley who looks ready to be among the country’s best, a talented freshman in Carter Bryant and a bouncy wing in K.J. Lewis.

There’s also veterans Trey Townsend and Tobe Awaka, each of whom are in their first seasons with the program but have postseason experience. Anthony Dell’Orso has taken a step up in competition but has brought his 3-point shot with him and Henri Veesaar, in this third college season, and should finally be ready for minutes as a 7-footer who can step out to the 3-point line (and is not afraid to let it rip, as was seen against UCLA).

Is this as good a roster as last year’s or any of the two before it? So far the answer is a resounding no, but that comes with a catch.

It’s important to note that while Arizona is certainly not off to the start any of us wanted or expected, things may not be quite as bad as they appear. If you are a believer in analytics, as of Dec. 16th EvanMiya.com has the Cats as the 24th-best team in the country while Haslemetrics.com lists them at 19th.

EvanMiya shows Arizona to have both a top-25 offense and defense, which if that holds for the rest of the season should result in plenty more wins than losses.

Then again, things could go the other direction.

Lloyd said after the UCLA loss that it was important for the team to stick together and not splinter. With plenty of big games ahead and a path to the dance still very much in front of them, that probably won’t be an issue.

What could be a problem is if the coaches and players either can’t figure out how to maximize what they have and are or figure things out too late. A subpar nonconference performance does not end the season, but it does plenty to whittle down the margin for error.

As of now there are four top-25 teams left on Arizona’s schedule, with another three who received votes in the latest AP Poll. That group makes up 10 of the 20 Big 12 conference games, and while the rankings are sure to change over the next handful of weeks the fact is despite how it may feel, the season is far from over and opportunity to make this a good one still very much exists.