UniSource Energy Services (UES) will expand its renewable energy
portfolio next year by building a community-scale solar photovoltaic
(PV) system in Mohave County and providing small solar arrays to two
Nogales high schools.
The projects are part of UES’ cost-effective plan to comply with
Arizona’s Renewable Energy Standard, which calls on utilities to
increase their use of renewable power each year until it accounts for 15
percent of their energy by 2025.
The company’s efforts are funded in part by the Renewable Energy
Standard Tariff (REST), a usage-based charge on UES customers’ electric
bills. In addition to approving UES’ renewable energy plan, the Arizona
Corporation Commission set the monthly cap on the residential REST
charge at $3.30 for 2016 – down from $3.40 this year.
In 2016, UES plans to invest up to $10 million to build a 5-megawatt
(MW) array at an undetermined location in Mohave County. The new array
will complement UES’ other company-owned renewable energy systems,
including a 7.2 MW solar array near Rio Rico and a 1.2-MW solar array in
Kingman. UES also purchases power from solar and wind-powered resources
in Mohave County. Including customer-owned systems, UES’ renewable
portfolio has a combined capacity of about 48 MW and produces enough
clean energy to power more than 10,000 homes for a year.
UES also will use $60,000 in REST funds to pay for the installation of
solar PV systems at Nogales High School and Pierson Vocational High
School in Nogales. Each system will have a capacity of about 10
kilowatts (kW) and will contribute to a small reduction in the schools’
monthly electric bills. UES has previously provided solar PV systems
ranging in size from 5 kW to 12 kW to high schools in Mohave and Santa
Cruz counties.
UES provides electric service to approximately 93,000 customers in
Mohave and Santa Cruz counties. The company also provides natural gas to
approximately 150,000 customers in northern and southern Arizona. For
more information, visit uesaz.com. UES and its parent company, UNS
Energy, are subsidiaries of Fortis, Inc., which owns utilities that
serve more than 3 million customers across Canada and in the United
States and the Caribbean. To learn more, visit fortisinc.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151211005924/en/
Copyright Business Wire 2015
Source: Business Wire
(December 11, 2015 - 5:49 PM EST)
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