Important meeting regarding epcor wastewater increases

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Please mark your calendars. The Corporation Commission will think Sun Citians don't care if we don't act now!!

 

Thanks for posting aggie. I know event organizers will be looking for input on the position SCHOA should take as this monster called consolidation comes closer to becoming reality. The time for the event sucks, but eat early or later and make every attempt to be there. It clearly will be more than show and tell as they will be looking for direction as to whether we consider settlement or fight to the death.

 

The turnout for the meeting was lower than the organizers hoped but there were still many interested residents in attendance. It was great to see Mayor Mike LeVault from Youngtown on the stage. They are equally as concerned about the wastewater increase because they are in the EPCOR Sun City Water District. Youngtown will also be sharing equally in the cost to retain the attorney to represent us in this fight. The attorney's cost to is reported to be in the neighborhood of $30,000. Please follow this issue. If you aren't a member of SCHOA and benefiting from all the good they do.....shame on you. The membership per family is only $20 a year! We need your support and membership.

 

It always surprises me how many people don't belong to SCHOA. It is the first thing I joined when I moved here. Well worth the money.

 

SCHOA Review and Strategy meeting 11/09/16

I attended the Review and Strategy meeting on 11/09/16 and was disappointed that there
was such low attendance but I guess the majority of the community has other more important
priorities.

EPCOR

What I took away from that meeting is that the SCHOA is looking for input from the community
on how they should proceed with regards to the Epcor consolidation case.
Do you go for a complete win or do you accept a compromise settlement?

In my opinion, a compromise produces the same result as you would get if you accept full
consolidation. A clear win produces the results you want – No Consolidation.

One thing that wasn’t asked or commented on is the fact that Epcor bases it rates for water and
waste water on 7000 gallons of water. Why are we not charged for exactly what we use?
Epcor is installing SMART meters in Canada so that rates there are based on actual water usage.
Why aren’t we getting smart meters?

APS

Another item I found interesting was the comparison given of two houses.
Were both houses on demand rate? How about a comparison of 2 or more houses on STANDARD
rates and Demand rates.

Also, I did not hear any mention of the fact that there is a fourth tier in the APS Mandatory
Demand rate case. This 4th tier is for customers who use 600 kwh or less on average.
If you use 600 kwh or less you can opt in for a Standard rate. This tier is not really
advertised or talked about by APS.

It was also stated that APS can install controllers to shut off electric to appliances to keep your
demand low. These controllers cost thousands of dollars. So APS wants you to spend thousands
to help you conserve and maybe save a few hundred dollars. APS states that their web site can show
you everything you need to know to enable you to conserve energy and keep your demand charges
to a minimum. This is not completely accurate. You can see your daily usage, but it takes several
days for this data to appear on their web site. Also, there is no way using their web site that you
can drill down to a specific time to determine what a specific electrical device is consuming in kwh.

There is however a way to do this if APS would allow its customers to extract the data from their
smart meters. Your smart meter can tell you exactly what a device consumes in kwh in real time.
It requires APS to turn on the ZIGBEE radio in the meter and for the customer to spend a one time
amount of 100.00 for a Rainforest Eagle to read and store the data on your home computer.
This device allows you to see in real time exactly what a given device uses in kwh.
100.00 is a far more reasonable price to pay to monitor and control your demand charges.

APS would have you believe that this is a security risk to their network. This is totally false.
APS uses RF transmission to gather your usage data from your meter and transmits it back to APS
on a predetermined time frame. This RF transmission can be read today by anyone with an SDR
(Software Defined Radio). The transmission is not encrypted. Turning on the ZIGBEE radio
would have no effect on the RF transmission to APS. The ZIGBEE radio is provisioned to talk to
a specific IP address meaning it will only talk to the ZIGBEE receiver (Rainforest Eagle) you have.
The Rainforest Eagle empowers the customer to see their usage statistics in real time so that you
can make an informed decision on what electrical devices to use or not use during the demand
period.

I urge you to take a look for yourself at this product (Rainforest Eagle and/or Rainforest EMU 2)
at the following web site and ask the ACC why APS doesn’t want you to use this device.
EAGLE™ | Smart Meter Gateway | Cloud Energy Monitor - Rainforest Automation
The rate payers are paying for their smart meter and therefore should have use of it for their needs
and to protect themselves from APS’s unreasonable and mysterious demand charges.

 

Thanks for your comments SCR, you know way too much about the APS stuff; not sure if that's a curse or a blessing?

I thought the meeting was about the EPCOR waste water problem...that's the one we need deal with first. I understand your concerns about trying to reach a settlement, but to fight to the death might prove to be a bigger mistake.

Here's why: Following the election of the three new commissioners, we got the worst outcome possible. While there are no guarantees on any of the 5 eligible, it's pretty clear we let party designation dictate who we voted for. The two democrats supported Bob Burns (R) and his efforts to ferret out the dark money that elected a couple of the candidates still on the board. Consequently, we ended up with guys who refused to help Burns and basically that tells us where they stand.

Okay, with that bit of politics out of the way, the reality is the 5 commissioners are beholding to no-one (except maybe the ones bought and paid for by APS). They can do whatever they please, no matter what we (Sun City) thinks about it. Refusing to try and reach a compromise tells them what? I could argue either way, but my fear is Greg is spot on about Tobin's goal for leaving a legacy. Clearly he supports the outlying areas and consolidating all of those tiny systems would drive our costs into the clouds but reduce all those paying their real costs.

In the end, i expect we are screwed either way. As stated last night, this is just the tip of the iceberg, the water rates adjustments and consolidation are coming down the road and will be every bit as daunting. Throw in the APS crap and demand rates and we are truly up against it.

One final note; kudos to SCHOA for taking this fight on...it is as aggie said, shameful so many people live in Sun City and don't belong to the organization.

 

While it may seem that I know too much about the APS stuff, it’s just that I’ve done quite a bit of
homework on the subject and don’t blindly accept as fact what APS or its opponents may suggest.

The meeting in my mind was to review the current cases before the ACC and to strategize.

Two cases were discussed - APS Mandatory Demand charges and Epcor Full Consolidation.

The intent of the meeting in my mind was to review both cases and to settle on a strategy in the
Epcor case.

The members present at this meeting were pretty unanimous in their decision to fight to the death
for no consolidation. I am in that camp.

EPCOR
Quite a few form letters have been sent to the ACC by Sun City residents. While they may not
have much impact, they at least tell the ACC that the residents of Sun City oppose full
consolidation. But if you look at the Edocket web site you will see that the other districts
have mounted a form letter writing campaign of their own to the ACC.

I have also done my homework on the Epcor case and have written several letters to the ACC
detailing my opposition to full consolidation. I could post those letters on this site, but
most of these letters are 5 or more pages each. I’ve learned that Agua Fria and Anthem were
consolidated at one point and at the request of Agua Fria and/or Anthem or both, they were
consolidated. Then, sometime later they requested the ACC to split them apart again.
I also learned that Epcor and/or the residents of Anthem have a 23 million dollar balloon payment
coming due. Epcor is also installing SMART meters in Canada so that their customers are only
paying for the water they use. SMART meters are not being installed in Sun City. I also learned that
rebates were offered to people to install low flow toilets, but NOT in Sun City. Epcor has no
interconnection of waste water infrastructure and treatment to any of their districts. Each district
stands on its own. Proponents say that everyone should pay the same rate from the same company.
If you go to Kroger to do your grocery shopping in any of the 36 states it operates in, you will pay
a different price for the exact same item in each of those states. Anthem and Agua Fria are not tiny
communities. They are large affluent communities of multiple wage earners per household.
Each of the other districts had infrastructure and waste water treatment plants built exclusively
for their use. Our infrastructure and waste water treatment facilities have been in existence
for 50 years. Is our infrastructure getting old – yes. Is it facing imminent failure? Not even the
so called experts can answer that question.