APS Says Peak Usage Now Later In Day, Requests Time Shift

By Casey Kuhn
Published: Thursday, October 20, 2016 - 5:53pm
Updated: Thursday, October 20, 2016 - 5:55pm
(Photo courtesy of APS)
APS is the state’s largest utility.

APS charges more to use electricity between noon and 7 p.m.

Now, APS wants to change the peak hour window from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.

“Our peak, which is the highest point we have in our energy consumption we have on our system, is progressively moving a little later in the day,” APS Director of State Regulation Greg Bernosky said.

How will this affect consumers? Jordy Fuentes with the residential utility consumer office said it’s actually a better option because, it’s a shorter window.

“It really does align better with the peak which will ultimately reduce the peak which will hopefully, ultimately, reduce the costs for ratepayers,” Fuentes said.

Fuentes said ideally, the peak rate hours would be an even smaller window. He said this is a small part of a much larger, and sometimes controversial, current rate case by the electric company.