TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Concern about electric rates—and the suspicion the demands of data centers will drive rates even higher drew about a hundred people to a town hall in Tucson by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes. Mayes and TEP are at odds over whether the power company’s rates are justified.
Frustration over the cost of electric bills dominated the town hall by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes.
Meeting participant Cathy Della Penta says, “It's important, particularly in this time period, with this administration on the federal level, to stand up for what is right and what is just.”
When she was on the Corporation Commission Kris Mayes helped set electric rates. Now as Arizona Attorney General she’s fighting TEP’s request for a 14 percent hike and trying to throw out a different agreement that sets rates for TEP to supply the Project Blue data center. Mayes say the Project Blue rate approval has too much secrecy, with large sections blacked out in the copy the public can see.
Ahead of Mayes event, Tucson Electric sent a news release saying the process with Project Blue was transparent and protects consumers from costs connected to the data center, including provisions that require Project Blue’s developers to cover the cost of infrastructure improvements the data center may need.
To that Mayes says, “That is a lie. I literally cannot believe that Tucson Electric Power Company, which has been in this city for more than 100 years, would put out a press release lying about a contract that it signed with a data center. I mean, outrageous outrageous. I've never seen anything like that in all my time as Attorney General or as an Arizona Corporation Commissioner. They redacted the contract. There is a blank space, a black space on the contract.”
TEP spokesman Joe Barrios says the company has to consider its customers and the redactions reflect some confidentiality concerns of the data center developers.
On the request for a 14 percent rate increase he says that does not reflect new construction for data centers. He says it is to recover money TEP already spent on its systems.
Barrios says, “The rates that our customers pay today are based on costs from 2021. If our rate application is approved, they'll be based on costs from 2024 and you know, these are for investments in things like poles and wires, substations, maintenance that we have to perform and our generating resources.”
But Mayes says she will work to throw out TEP’s Project Blue agreement and oppose TEP’s other effort for a general rate hike.
