APS Customers in Arizona Get a One-Time Credit Averaging About $15 on November Electric Bills After Regulators Returned $33.6 Million

One line that normally sits on Arizona Public Service residential bills, an “Environmental Benefits Surcharge” of about $2.49, will be missing from November statements. In its place, APS customers get a one-time bill credit that Arizona Corporation Commission Chairman Nick Myers said averages “around $15” for residential customers.

The five-member Arizona Corporation Commission voted unanimously on Oct. 8 to return about $33.6 million to APS ratepayers on November 2026 bills. The commission’s release describes no application or sign-up step: the credit and the skipped charge are applied on the November statement itself.

A credit and a missing surcharge on November statements

The commission’s order does two things at once. It issues the one-time credit, and it suspends the monthly Renewable Energy Adjustment Charge, or REAC, for November. That charge is the one labeled “Environmental Benefits Surcharge” on residential bills.

“The average residential customers will therefore see a bill credit of around $15 in November,” Myers said, according to Daily Energy Insider. The commission’s release puts the average residential customer’s total one-time savings at about $14.70, counting the credit and the skipped surcharge together.

The two figures come from the same vote and are close, but they don’t line up to the penny. AZ Free News noted that a $15 credit plus a $2.49 skipped charge would come to about $17.49, and the commission did not explain the gap.

Commissioner Lea Márquez Peterson said the credit “comes at a good time for residential customers who saw higher bills due to increased usage during the hot summer months.”

Business customers’ renewable credits paid for it

The $33.6 million is the uncommitted balance in the REAC fund, which households pay into through the surcharge. Much of it came from APS’s Green Power Partners program, in which commercial and industrial customers voluntarily buy renewable energy credits from the utility.

Renewable energy credits represent the green attributes of power produced by solar, wind and other clean sources, and buyers use them to back claims of cleaner energy use. Under APS’s program, a business pays a contracted green power price on top of its regular retail rate, and receives a set amount of power tied to specific clean energy facilities, according to APS’s description of Green Power Partners.

APS offers four versions. Green Value, aimed at mid- to large-sized businesses, uses credits from clean energy facilities in operation before 2021, and Green Connect links a customer to a newer existing facility; both carry one-year minimums. Green Locate funds a new renewable facility at one of the customer’s own properties, and Green Commit is a long-term investment in new Arizona projects; both require 20-year commitments and commission approval of the contract. Residential customers are pointed to a separate program, Green Choice.

The commission expanded Green Power Partners in February. At its Feb. 4 open meeting, it voted unanimously to let APS apply the value of those credit sales against the REAC, a move it said was expected to save ratepayers $30 million in 2026. The November credit is the payout from that balance.

Vice Chair Rachel Walden said APS “was able to monetize some Renewable Energy Credits” through the program, and that those proceeds fund the relief. Commissioner René Lopez pointed to recent commission actions returning about $33.6 million to APS households, and Commissioner Kevin Thompson called any decision that saves ratepayers money “a good day.”

The Environmental Benefits Surcharge comes back Dec. 1

The break lasts one billing month. The REAC returns to its previously approved rate on Dec. 1, 2026, according to the commission, so December statements will again carry the surcharge.

The commission filed the decision under docket E-01345A-26-0401, which is available through its eDocket system. The February Green Power Partners expansion is under a separate docket, E-01345A-25-0140.

The order covers APS customers only. Customers of Salt River Project, Tucson Electric Power and other Arizona utilities are not part of it.

A credit tied to a rule repeal the attorney general is contesting

Several commissioners linked the credit to their decision to repeal Arizona’s Renewable Energy Standard and Tariff rules, known as REST. Walden said the 2006 commission required APS to sign long-term, above-market renewable contracts under those rules, leaving customers to pay a surcharge they otherwise would not owe. Myers credited both the repeal and the commission’s decision to let APS sell the credits, saying Green Power Partners “has resulted in over $33 million for APS customers.”

That repeal is still contested. On March 30, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed an application for rehearing with the commission, arguing that it approved the repeal before finishing a required economic analysis. “The Commission approved this decision before the required economic analysis was even finished,” Mayes said in a statement from her office.

Her filing says the commission broke its own rule review procedures by approving publication of the final rulemaking notice before the final economic impact statement was done, then directing staff to finish that review afterward. “Arizonans never got the chance to review the completed analysis or comment on it before the commission voted,” Mayes said. Walden acknowledged the attorney general’s challenge in her remarks on the credit.

The November credit itself was approved in a separate Oct. 8 vote on the REAC fund balance. Elsewhere, Pacific Power customers in California are getting a November $111.83 climate credit, and Maryland is starting automatic utility discounts tied to income in January.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Alan Stark from Goodyear, AZ, United States – CC BY-SA 2.0/Wikimedia Commons