TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Should the City of Tucson own and run the electrical service for people in Tucson? That’s the idea some people are proposing—and TEP is fighting.
Unless you managed to live off the grid if you live in Tucson you get your power from Tucson Electric. But there’s are some advocates who are trying to compel the city to buy TEP’s system within the city limits. They say you’ll save money. TEP says you won't.
Some consumers have been —yes we’ll say it— shocked by the size of their electrical bills.
The City of Tucson is close to the deadline to renew its franchise agreement that gives Tucson Electric the exclusive right to operate the power grid that delivers electricity to Tucson.
But some people say Tucsonans would have cheaper bills and more green energy if voters took profit motive out of the picture, and ordered city government to buy out and run TEP’s operations inside the city. TEP would still supply power to surrounding areas.
Lee Ziesche of the Democratic Socialists of America says, “I think people really understand the very high bills that they're paying every day, you know, they also understand the very high temperatures that we're seeing. So when you go out and talk to people about this, you know, it's really not a very complicated issue for them. They don't think that energy is something that somebody should profit off of, and really just believe that they should that the people that we should own the grid.”
The City of Tucson’s not taking a side but as part of it’s environmental program used 280 thousand dollars in Federal Money to ask consultants if a TEP buy out would work.
The draft report says it would work, assuming the city paid between 1.4 and 3.6 billion dollars to buy TEP’s assets. It estimates the average customer would save $241 a year to start.
ButTEP says customers would pay more, not less, by the time you carve a new system out of the heart of TEP’s grid.
Joe Salkowski of TEP says, “The amount of new construction to physically separate the city's infrastructure from the remaining infrastructure that would serve the rest of our community, the hiring of a workforce, the standing up of a control room, the building of a fleet, the securing of generating resources that might not be available in the amounts that the city needs.”
And TEP says it would lawyer up and fight a forced buy out in court in an expensive process that could hike total costs and delay a buy out for many years.
Now both sides are preparing to try to persuade Tucson voters who’s right. Buy-out advocates say they trust the consultants’ conclusions and that TEP is just fighting to survive.
TEP says the consultant reached the wrong conclusions and says Tucson’s better with TEP as a partner for the future.
