ARIZONA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Fifty-seventh Legislature

First Regular Session

Senate: NR DP 5-3-0-0 | 17-12-1-0-0

☐ Prop 105 (45 votes) ☐ Prop 108 (40 votes) ☐ Emergency (40 votes) ☐ Fiscal Note

SB1309: public utilities; electric grid improvements

Sponsor: Senator Carroll, LD 28

Committee on Natural Resources, Energy & Water

Overview

Outlines requirements the Arizona Corporation Commission (Commission) must follow regarding changes to maintain or improve an electric power grid.

History

The Commission is a statewide agency and public utility commission that is responsible for ensuring safe, reliable and affordable utility services. The Commission has five elected committee members who oversee executive, legislative and judicial proceedings on behalf of Arizona's residents in regard to utilities and regulation of securities (ACC).

The electrical grid is responsible for the nation's energy economy, it is composed of interconnected power lines and substations that transmit electricity from power plants to consumers. The Grid Modernization Initiative (GMI) works through the Department of Energy to modernize the electrical grid to measure, analyze and protect electrical grids (DOE).

Electric grids undergo modernization improvements for multiple reasons:

1)   wildfire prevention by wildfire and wildfires caused by aging infrastructure;

2)   improvements allow consumers to keep power on locally even when outages are being experienced;

3)   lower energy bills and clean energy;

4)   focuses on infrastructure upgrades including locally focused economic development (DOE).

Provisions

1.   Requires the Commission to ensure that any changes to an electric power grid must be:

a)   capable of producing enough electricity to meet the demand for electric service in summer and winter months; and

b)   contain a generation resource mix that avoids power quality incidents and non-momentary electric service interruptions that are not related to severe weather conditions. (Sec.1)

2.   Mandates that on the retirement of an electric generation plant, the Commission will require a replacement electric generation plant that is able to provide an equal amount of dispatchable load following generation. (Sec.1) 

3.   Defines dispatchable load following generation as a power source that quickly adjusts to fluctuations in electricity demand. (Sec.1)

4.   Defines generation resource mix as the combination of different energy sources that are used to produce electricity with contributions from other sources of power. (Sec.1)

 

 

 

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                  SB 1309

Initials CW/TM   Page 0 Natural Resources, Energy & Water

 

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