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Arizona

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State Planning and Incentive Structures | Energy Efficiency Actions | Energy Supply Actions

State Planning and Incentive Structures

Lead By Example—Energy Efficiency in Public Facilities

Status: Completed/Further Work Proposed

Details: The Omnibus Energy Act of 2008 (HB 2766), passed by the House on March 27, 2008, and in the Senate as of October 2008, would extend Arizona's existing law to require state agencies and universities to achieve a 30% reduction in energy use by 2020. HB 2766 would also require all new state buildings to conform to LEED standards.
Executive Order 2005-05, signed in February 2005, requires that all state-funded buildings constructed after the date of the Executive Order meet at least the LEED Silver standard.
In 2003, the Arizona legislature passed HB 2324, which modified ARS 34-451. The 2003 law requires state agencies and universities to achieve a 10% reduction in energy use per unit of floor area by 2008 and a 15% reduction by 2011; newly constructed state buildings must be consistent with the International Energy Conservation Code.

Lead By Example—Energy Efficient Appliance and Equipment Purchase Requirements for Public Facilities

Status: Completed

Details: HB 2324 (2003) requires all government agencies to procure ENERGY STAR products in all available categories unless the products are shown not to be cost-effective on a life-cycle basis.

Lead By Example—Clean Energy Goals for Public Facilities

Status: Completed/Further Work Proposed

Details: HB 2766 (Omnibus Energy Act of 2008), passed by the House on March 27, 2008, and in the Senate as of October 2008, would require that all state agencies, universities, and school districts receive 10% of their energy from renewable sources by 2013.
Executive Order 2005-05, signed in February 2005, requires all new state-funded buildings to be designed and constructed to derive at least 10% of their energy from renewable sources. The renewable energy requirement may also be met through the purchase of RECs. ARS 34-451 requires that new state building projects over 6,000 square feet include a written evaluation of solar energy features and mandates that solar projects with simple paybacks less than 8 years and positive life-cycle costs are built.

Lead By Example—Energy Efficiency and Alternative Fuel Goals for Public Fleets

Status: Completed

Details: Executive Order 2006-13 (September 7, 2006) calls for all state agencies to purchase only vehicles that are hybrid, meet low GHG emissions standards, or use E-85 fuel, biofuels, or other low GHG alternative fuels, with the goal that by January 1, 2010, all state vehicles shall be hybrid, meet low GHG emissions standards, or use E-85 fuel, biofuels, or other low-GHG alternative fuels. ARS 9-500.04 requires a city or town in a county of more than 1.2 million people to develop and implement a public vehicle fleet plan for the purpose of encouraging and progressively increasing the use of alternative fuels and clean burning fuels. These plans shall include a timetable for increasing the use of such fuels in fleet vehicles either through purchase or conversion: at least 18% of the total fleet by 1996, 25% by 1997, 50% by 1999, and at least 75% by 2001 and thereafter. ARS 41-803 requires that the new purchases for the state vehicle fleet that primarily operate in counties with a population of more than 250,000 persons and that have a gross vehicle weight of <8500 lbs: for model year 1997, 20% of new motor vehicles purchased shall be capable of operating on alternative fuels, for model year 2000, 50% of new motor vehicles purchased shall be capable of operating on alternative fuels, and for model year 2003, 70% of new alternative fuel and clean burning fuel vehicles purchased shall comply with the US EPA standards for low emission vehicles.

State and Regional Energy Planning

Status: Completed

Details: Arizona is part of the Western Governor's Association (WGA). In June 2006 the Governors signed resolutions to meet or exceed goals of 30,000 MW of clean energy by 2015 and a 20% increase in energy efficiency by 2020, to encourage adequate funding for state energy efficiency and renewable generation programs, and to facilitate development of regional energy markets.

Determining the Air Quality Benefits of Clean Energy—Energy Efficiency/Renewable Energy Set Asides (NOX Budget Trading Program)

Status: No Activity Identified

Determining the Air Quality Benefits of Clean Energy—Energy Efficiency/Renewable Energy Set Asides (CAIR Budget Trading Program)

Status: No Activity Identified

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Energy Efficiency Actions

Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standards

Status: No Activity Identified

Public Benefit Funds for Energy Efficiency

Status: Completed

Details: In September 1999, the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) instructed utilities to include a Public Benefits Fund in their restructuring plans. The Public Benefits Fund provides $49.5 million in funding for low-income, demand side management, environmental, renewable and nuclear power plant decommissioning programs. $19.5 million of the $49.5 million will be spent on energy efficiency.

Building Codes for Energy Efficiency—Commercial Programs

Status: No Activity Identified

Details: AZ is a home rule state, so building codes are determined at the local level. More than 20 local municipal governments in Arizona have adopted energy codes or codes that incorporate energy provisions. There are mandatory codes for state owned and state funded buildings only ASHRAE/IESNA 90.1-1999; can use COMcheck-EZ to show compliance

Building Codes for Energy Efficiency—Residential Programs

Status: No Activity Identified

Details: AZ is a home rule state, so building codes are determined at the local level. More than 20 local municipal governments in Arizona have adopted energy codes or codes that incorporate energy provisions. A 1989 Model Energy Code may be adopted and enforced by local jurisdictions.

State Appliance Efficiency Standards

Status: Completed/Further Work Proposed

Details: The Omnibus Energy Act of 2008 (HB 2766), passed by the House on March 27, 2008, and in the Senate as of October 2008, would establish energy efficiency standards for specific appliances and equipment. HB 2390, signed by the governor on April 25, 2005, establishes the minimum energy efficiency requirements for 12 specific appliances and supplies, including four that must meet the California minimum requirements.

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Energy Supply Actions

Renewable Portfolio Standards

Status: Completed/Further Work Proposed

Details: The Omnibus Energy Act of 2008 (HB 2766), passed by the House on March 27, 2008, and in the Senate as of October 2008, would require that at least 15% of the electricity delivered to retail customers be generated from renewable energy. In her state of the state address on January 14, 2008, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano called for the state legislature to pass a law requiring all electric utilities to provide 15% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025. Arizona's renewable energy standard tariff (REST) rules, which were ruled as constitutional on June 15, 2007, require utilities to increase their total renewable energy mix from 1.75% in 2008 to 15% by 2025. The requirements accelerate over time with 2.5% by 2010 to 5% by 2015, 10% by 2020, and 30% in 2025. REST also requires that 5% of each utility's renewable energy must come from customer-side sources in 2007, growing to 30% by 2012. One-half of the distributed renewable energy requirement must come from residential applications and the remaining one-half from nonresidential, non-utility applications. Arizona enacted the RPS in October 2006.

Public Benefit Funds for Clean Energy Supply

Status: Completed

Details: In September 1999, the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) instructed utilities to include a Public Benefits Fund in their restructuring plans. The Public Benefits Fund provides $49.5 million in funding for low-income, demand side management, environmental, renewable and nuclear power plant decommissioning programs ($25 million spent to expand renewable energy). Over time the Public Benefits Fund has become more focused on renewable energy than on energy-efficiency. In February 2006, the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC)increased the charge on customers from $0.000875/kw hour to $0.004988/kw hour, with the residential cap increased from $0.35 to $1.05.

Output-Based Environmental Regulations

Status: No Activity Identified

Interconnection Standards—Clean Distributed Generation

Status: Proposed

Details: In June 2007, the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) initiated a rulemaking process to establish statewide interconnection standards for distributed generation (DG). This proceeding is still in progress. Until the new official rules go into effect, the commission has recommended that utilities use the draft rules as a guide. This document applies to systems up to 10 megawatts (MW) in capacity.

Interconnection Standards—Net Metering

Status: Completed

Details: In October 2008, the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) adopted net metering rules that apply to all investor-owned electric utilities and cooperative utilities in the state. Utilities must file compliance tariffs by mid-January 2009, and the ACC must approve these tariffs before they take effect. Under the new state rules, net metering will be available to customers who generate electricity using solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, biomass, biogas, combined heat and power (CHP), or fuel cell technologies. The ACC did not set a firm kilowatt limit on system size capacity, as is found in most other states’ net metering policies. Instead, systems must be sized to meet all or part of a customer’s electric load in that the system may not exceed 125% of the customer’s total connected load. Net metering is currently offered by Salt River Project and Tucson Electric Power for systems under 10 kW. These rules cover photovoltaics (both) and wind (TEP only).

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