APS 2012 Annual Report Download - page 36

12
Future Resources and Resource Plan
Under the ACC’s resource planning rule, APS will file by April 1 of each even year its
resource plans for the next fifteen-year period. APS filed its first resource plan pursuant to these rules
on April 1, 2012. The rule requires the ACC to issue an order with its acknowledgment of APS’s
resource plan within approximately ten months following its submittal. The deadline for the ACC to
acknowledge APS’s resource plan has been extended from February 1, 2013 until April 1, 2013. The
ACC’s acknowledgment of APS’s resource plan will consider factors such as the total cost of electric
energy services, demand management, analysis of supply-side options, system reliability and risk
management.
Renewable Energy Standard
In 2006, the ACC adopted the RES. Under the RES, electric utilities that are regulated by the
ACC must supply an increasing percentage of their retail electric energy sales from eligible renewable
resources, including solar, wind, biomass, biogas and geothermal technologies. The renewable energy
requirement is 4% of retail electric sales in 2013 and increases annually until it reaches 15% in 2025.
In APS’s 2009 retail rate case settlement agreement, APS committed to have 1,700 GWh of new
renewable resources in service by year-end 2015 in addition to its 2008 renewable resource
commitments. Taken together, APS’s commitment is estimated to be approximately 12% of retail
sales, by year-end 2015, which is more than double the RES target of 5% for that year. A component
of the RES is focused on stimulating development of distributed energy systems (generally speaking,
small-scale renewable technologies that are located on customers’ properties, such as rooftop solar
systems). Accordingly, under the RES, an increasing percentage of that requirement must be supplied
from distributed energy resources. This distributed energy requirement is 30% of the overall RES
requirement of 4% in 2013. The following table summarizes the RES requirement standard (not
including the additional commitment required by the settlement agreement discussed above) and its
timing:
2013 2015 2020 2025
RES as a % of retail electric sales
4%
5%
10%
15%
Percent of RES to be supplied from distributed
energy resources
30%
30%
30%
30%
Renewable Energy Portfolio. To date, APS has a diverse portfolio of existing and planned
renewable resources totaling 1090 MW, including wind, geothermal, solar, biomass and biogas. Of
this portfolio, 667 MW are currently in operation and 423 MW are under contract for development or
are under construction. Renewable resources in operation include 81 MW of facilities owned by APS,
349 MW of long-term purchased power agreements, and an estimated 237 MW of customer-sited,
third-party owned distributed energy resources.