tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-478354375758846359.post586535602146193677..comments2023-04-25T13:20:01.724-07:00Comments on Arizona Eagletarian: Revisit Laurie Roberts' question -- WHY is APS trying to BUY itself a personal Attorney General?Steve Muratore aka Arizona Eagletarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01404761986345385458noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-478354375758846359.post-42914092243484168722014-10-27T23:30:36.174-07:002014-10-27T23:30:36.174-07:00From Kathleen W (continued):
It is much easier to ...From Kathleen W (continued):<br />It is much easier to just keep running their plants and selling the power. Going green is a burden of change and a guarantee of lowered revenues ... UNLESS they do something like evolve to the reality. That might very well mean contracting their business over the years and mean more than just building solar farms from the ground up (not exactly green ripping up pristine wilderness, wasting lots of water for cooling). Evolving might even include things like growing a rooftop solar subsidiary arm to compete in the marketplace. Rooftop is actually the most efficient way to generate solar - plant them on an existing support structure like a roof, connect and make kilowatts. They could do this via leasing or selling them but it appears they are doing neither nor does it look like they have plans to do this. Monopolies must feel they are exempt from this kind evolution.<br /><br /><br />I wish our political establishment would mandate all new homes and commercial buildings be required to have an adequate PV system to generate at least 75% of expected power use. Add incentives for retrofit solar and really accelerate towards full green power. <br /><br /><br />Obviously, this requires APS (or others) to go along with evolution: to work on building power storage systems, to get involved in the rooftop panel industry, plan for a contraction because the truth is the role of sole power provider is going away. But they don't want to give up their cash cow, change or compete or help society "do the right thing" and get green except on the slowest possible timetable to preserve their revenue & their jobs as long as possible. <br /><br /><br />It certainly appears they are buying their governance for one reason: to protect their golden goose so they do not have to evolve. With bought regulators in place, they can continue to string out the "we're green partners" PR message at a minuscule level for decades buying time to keep milking their cash cow. It's so much simpler to keep doing things the old way and easier to get away with that when you are a monopoly. Even more so if you own your regulators. <br /><br /><br />We need regulators with the guts to force change including contraction - no other business gets a pass, they must evolve or die. Why should a monopoly be any different?Steve Muratore aka Arizona Eagletarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01404761986345385458noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-478354375758846359.post-4780935270182555512014-10-27T23:26:00.705-07:002014-10-27T23:26:00.705-07:00From reader Kathleen W:
APS is completely resista...From reader Kathleen W:<br /><br />APS is completely resistant to evolving their business model. Why else press surcharges on rooftop solar customers to cheat them out of any savings they might enjoy by going green? Obviously APS grudgingly accepted the REST standards to go along with the push for green energy - why would they willingly want to cut into up to 15% of their revenue stream except to "go along" and look as if they are "green partners"? In their existing model, they own all the plants, call all the shots on how much we pay. In rooftop solar, they lose control of the production and they lose the ability to sell all the power to people with rooftop panels. Now that they have approached the 15% green mandate level, they're getting squeamish about "donating" any more to the "green cause". <br /><br /><br />When you consider the way business evolution happens in other industries, the business must adapt to technology that's going to become standard in a timely fashion to remain competitive and relevant. To fail to do so means a downward spiral out of business as they are left behind in old technology while the world advances around them. Some examples: analog to digital photography/telephony/audio-video, vast numbers of products such as gas pumps, cash registers, meters, banking terminals, scales, automobiles, even hand tools. All (and more) must continue to make adjustments to scale & scope of operations (and budget) simply because they must keep evolving with their market & the science and technology of their products. <br /><br /><br />What exactly could drive APS to evolve when as a monopoly they have no market with any kind of market demand power demanding anything of them? Instead, they are standing on a pedestal as virtually the only providers of essential power - unless you are wealthy enough to invest in a full PV system with off grid capabilities. (continued)<br /><br />[yet, the cost for such PV systems with storage is dropping rapidly]<br /><br />Steve Muratore aka Arizona Eagletarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01404761986345385458noreply@blogger.com