Arizona Corporation Commission chair encourages APS to partner with locals to spur Arizona energy industry

Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) Chair Lea Márquez Peterson recently sought to encourage the Arizona Public Service Company (APS) to engage with local start-ups and entrepreneurs to involve the energy industry in competitions and technology transfer programs.

In this way, she intimated, local entrepreneurs and start-ups could gain greater opportunities to win utility contracts, while the state’s largest electric utility could, in turn, prompt innovations in grid-connected devices and the software that synchronizes them. Ultimately, this could benefit the local industry, as well as improve the energy industry’s smart inverters, thermostats, appliances, at-home battery systems, and other technologies.

“Arizona has a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem, so I have proposed APS partner with organizers of local ‘start-up’-based events (such as StartUpAZ, Startup Grind, Invest Southwest, ASU Venture Devils, Startup Tucson, Tech Launch Arizona, and UA Center for Innovation, etc.) and consider issuing RFPs and contracts in coordination with these events,” Márquez Peterson said.

She added, “APS is a major employer in our state with a lot of contracts available to build out a resilient grid; winning a big contract with a major electric company like APS can be a major launching pad, and I believe APS should take advantage of and help to spread these innovative technologies.”

While start-ups and venture capitalists should already have access to competitive solicitations for public and private contracts, Márquez Peterson added that high application fees can make these opportunities less competitive than they may seem. By pitching requests for proposals at more local events, she theorizes that well-established companies like APS could provide extra opportunities for new market entrants.

The pitch came in the wake of a January 2021 announcement from the five-member regulatory commission, which details plans to develop a new RFP program for APS that would give new technology and software companies more opportunities to improve grid efficiency and help synchronize at-home energy devices across Arizona’s distribution system. Márquez Peterson emphasized she would like to see local entrepreneurs able to compete against well-established companies for contracts with APS as part of this new RFP system.

As part of this effort at cost reduction and accessibility increases, the proposed program would make the RFP cycle into an annual one, with locals and organizations able to participate in local competitions and technology transfer programs to bid into the RFPs at a lower cost. The chair added that she would like to see APS promote its new RFPs within the local entrepreneurial ecosystem to give these smaller organizations and individuals time to develop their products and raise overall awareness.