Will Corp Com go against judge and OK APS to raise solar fee?

It's a rare bad day if you're Arizona Public Service … and possibly the Arizona Corporation Commission.

An administrative law judge has recommended that the commission dismiss APS's request to impose higher fees on its rooftop solar customers.

In April, APS asked to boost its fee for new solar users to an average $21 a month – more than four times the $5 it now is allowed to charge solar customers to maintain the grid.

Earlier this year, SRP imposed a $50-a-month fee on solar users, virtually killing the market for rooftop solar in its service area. Unlike APS, SRP is not regulated by the Corporation Commission.

APS contends that it needs the new fee ASAP in order to be lower costs for non-solar customers, vowing that the utility wouldn't make a dime on the deal.

Others have suggested that the Corporation Commission wait until next year to decide the matter during a rate case, when all costs must be laid out to see whether APS is being truthful when it says its non-solar customers are subsidizing solar users. When all APS revenue and expenses will be reviewed to see just how much APS is scoring in profit.

On Monday, Administrative Law Judge Teena Jibilian recommended that the Corporation Commission dismiss APS's request to boost its solar fee in a vacuum, saying it is "more reasonably and appropriately dealt with in the context of a full rate case proceeding."

"It is not in the public interest to make a determination on the reset application outside a full rate case proceeding," she wrote.

It is, however, in the interest of APS, which has been pushing to boost its fees for solar customers for several years now.

So now all eyes turn to the five-member Corporation Commission -- a commission that seems to have rather cozy connections with APS.

Two of the commissioners, Doug Little and Tom Forese, are widely believed to owe their election last year to APS and a multi-million-dollar dark money campaign to get them elected.

A third, Bob Stump, has been in the news of late for his mad texting skills with an APS executive and one of those dark money groups believed to be connected to APS – texts that he deleted on a commission-supplied phone that he then threw away (because it was old).

The other two, Bob Burns and Susan Bitter Smith, have declined to order APS to open its books so we can see the extent of the utility's involvement in picking its regulators.

The commission will decide on Aug. 18, whether to continue on with APS's request to quadruple its fee or to go with the administrative law judge's recommendation to dismiss the proposal.

Won't that be interesting to watch?