Special Open Meeting - Commission Workshop - Large Load Users Development in Arizona Workshop

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Arizona Corporation Commission 5h 16m 8 agenda items transcribed 1 day ago official recording ↗

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What are the opening remarks and objectives of the Large Load Workshop?

Chair Myers 0:00

Thank you for joining joining us for the large load workshop today. I'll go ahead and call this meeting to order and um I'll start with just a couple of comments. First off, I want to thank uh Commissioner Thompson for putting all this together. This is a uh big topic all over the country right now. And uh Arizona obviously is not exempt from from those discussions. We uh are kind of at the forefront and in leading the way in a lot of the discussions on making sure that we protect ratepayers and and serving the the major load. Um and these discussions um are going to prove very interesting today. So thank you all for being here. Thank you to all the presenters that are are going to present uh their their information today and with that I will turn it over to Commissioner Thompson.

Chair Myers 0:45

Thank you, Chair Myers. Good morning and thank you all for being here. Um I wanted to express my appreciation to all of our presenters today. Um we've got a long day ahead, so um uh with our commission activities this evening. Uh This evening, so I want to be considerate of everyone's time because we not only have this, but we have the wildfire workshop later this this evening. It's my intention to uh have us out of here by uh one o'clock. Uh we will work through lunch, we'll take short breaks um here and there. Uh so when I call you, please be prompt uh when when I call you to the podium. So you can either come to the podium or you can sit at the table. It's up to you. Um Please be concise with your presentations and please do your best to keep your presentations no longer than 15 minutes.

Chair Myers 1:32

Um I opened this docket. Gosh, probably a a year ago, maybe more. Um Because I won't I was concerned about our our exceeding load growth uh and demand and how much of that Is tied to data centers and other high load customers. When I opened this docket, I was more narrowly focused on data centers. And while Data centers remain the primary focus and driver of our recent uh load projection growth. I wanted to make sure that we looked at this puzzle holistically because large manufacturing and the tech industry also play a key role in driving this growth. And I think a theme for today and moving forward is that this commission wants to encourage growth and help spur economic development. But we're also firm believers that new growth should continue to pay for new growth.

Chair Myers 2:21

I don't think it's ri uh it's realistic to bury our heads in the sand and simply say no new data centers. This is increasingly becoming more of a national security issue, and modern society demands convenience. As we rapidly move in a direction where data and ai are further in ingrained in our lives. I'll let you all decide personally whether the flourishment of Eya is a good thing for you. But the freight train is coming. And as regulators and those responsible for prote pro for protecting the integrity of our grid, we have to be forward thinkers. But through all of this, we can't forget the ratepayers. We have to make sure the general public isn't stuck paying the infrastructure costs that should be shouldered by the companies who benefit from the electricity and the water that they need to offer their product.

Chair Myers 3:07

The commission has done a great job to date, making sure data centers and other large load customers are paying their fair share. I think that's a uh misperception out there that that uh we could all collectively do a better job dispelling um this notion that residential ratepayers and small business rates are increasing because of data centers. We have a number of existing tools and practices today that are in place to make sure we protect ratepayers and support responsible growth. We'll hear about those, but we also probably need to review our regulatory framework. And decide whether additional protections and procedures need to be in place for the tidal wave that's coming. And with that, I will open comments up to my fellow commissioners for any opening remarks.

Chair Myers 3:50

After the commissioners speak, we'll move to our first presenter, which will be Rose Nemeth with Utilities Division, followed by Steve Oleia, also with Utility Staff, Cynthia Zwick with Ruco, and you'll be third on our agenda.