A judge who works for Arizona's utility regulators went through a 278-page Tucson rate case and ended up close to where the utility started. Eleven percent on the average home bill, plus a formula to raise it again every year. It's Friday, October twenty-third, and this is Power Bill. After Tucson, we have the result of Thursday's vote in Harrisburg on retail electricity suppliers, and a Texas settlement that nobody has to explain line by line.
Yana Kunichoff, reporting for Arizona Luminaria:
The administrative law judge tasked with weighing in on Tucson Electric Power’s requested rate increase is recommending a double-digit rate increase that would raise average residential bills 11.2% and is backing TEP’s request for annual rate increases under a new formula.
Judge Julia Matter issued the recommended order on Tuesday, October 20. TEP's request, filed in 2025, ended up at about 13 percent, so this shaves a little off the top. A little. Attorney General Kris Mayes' office testified that TEP could deliver the same reliability with a 4 percent increase. The judge still called TEP's proposed rate structure appropriate. On dollars, Luminaria reports the increase as a share of the average monthly bill, not as a dollar amount, so I won't invent one. If the commission adopts it, new rates could start as soon as December 1. The formula worries me more. An Annual Rate Adjustment Mechanism updates rates every year without a full case. Critics say that means yearly increases on an ever-bigger base, with too little notice for the public to weigh in. The judge rejected that concern, writing that due process means notice and a meaningful chance to be heard, not a full evidentiary hearing every time. TEP spokesman Joseph Barrios says annual adjustments wouldn't be automatic and would still need commission approval. One piece does help. The Lifeline low-income program would split in two: a 50 percent discount for households at or below the federal poverty level, and 20 percent for those between 101 and 200 percent of it. The commission is tentatively set to take this up on Tuesday, November 17. Separately, Tucson voters decide on November 3 whether TEP gets a 25-year franchise to run its lines along city streets.
Paul Ring, writing for EnergyChoiceMatters.com:
The Pennsylvania PUC, in a 3-2 decision, modified a recommended decision in the default service proceeding of FirstEnergy Pennsylvania, and an associated non-unanimous settlement, as the PUC rejected the RD's proposed ban on auto-renewals of fixed price residential electric contracts
We set this vote up on Thursday's show. The RD is the recommended decision from two administrative law judges. The commission kept most of it but voted down the main consumer change: returning FirstEnergy Pennsylvania households to default service when a fixed-price supplier contract ends, unless they choose to stay. So someone who signs a teaser rate and misses the end date can still get rolled into whatever comes next. Quarterly consent for variable plans is gone too. Chairman Steve DeFrank said the roughly $82 million that FirstEnergy's shopping customers paid above default service in 2025 raises obvious concerns. Then he voted to study it. His argument is that nobody has shown why they paid more. He wants a statewide review of whether it's renewable or long-term fixed products, or customer inertia. Recommendations are due June 1, 2027. Commissioner John Coleman said the evidence may be damning for the market, but he wants the full story. The dissent had the stronger case. Vice Chair Kimberly Barrow said the record supports acting now, and that returning customers who never opted to stay would save that group money. Commissioner Kathryn Zerfuss agreed with her. Here's what did pass. For supplier contracts signed after June 1, 2027, FirstEnergy will only buy the receivables of plans priced at or below the price to compare at sign-up. One wrinkle: because the settlement was modified, parties can withdraw, and if the commission then misses its nine-month deadline, FirstEnergy could put its original plan, auto-renewal ban included, into effect. DeFrank urged the company not to. So if you buy power from a supplier in Pennsylvania, keeping track of your contract's end date is still on you.
Krysti Shallenberger, writing for the Energy and Policy Institute:
Under the settlement, SWEPCO residential customers using 1,000 kWh per month would see bills rise to $145.72, with the customer charge increasing to $10.92 to go alongside increases to per kWh usage charges.
SWEPCO puts today's bill at $135.28 for that usage, so the increase is about $10.44 a month, or 7.7 percent, for a utility with more than 191,000 Texas customers. It asked Texas regulators in October 2025 for $95 million, roughly $16.43 a month. A settlement reached in September with commission staff and all intervenors cuts that to $47.5 million. Half sounds like a win until you check the profit line. The allowed return on equity still rises, from 9.25 to 9.53 percent. And it's a black box settlement, so the public sees totals, not a line-by-line justification for each cost. Two more charges to know. The new rates would be backdated to March 2026 through a surcharge, partly offset by a $28.5 million refund from an earlier case. The institute says its 7.7 percent figure doesn't include that surcharge. Customers would also cover $10.6 million in legal costs for this case over two years. That includes the lawyers who argued for the increase. You pay for the hike and for the people who made the case for it. The institute also says the settlement doesn't disclose whether SWEPCO can recover legislative monitoring costs, Edison Electric Institute dues, or civic and political spending. SWEPCO's regulatory services director, Peter Kimani, testified that the company already excluded or adjusted for the lobbying share of those dues. The settlement still needs the Texas commission's approval.
For the demand side of the electricity story, try our sister show, The Data Center Daily. It's a daily briefing on AI compute: hyperscaler capex, the power grid, semiconductor supply, and energy markets reshaped by intelligence at scale. You'll find it in the same app you're using right now.
What to watch: Tucson votes on TEP's franchise November 3, and the Arizona commission meets November 17. Pennsylvania still owes a written order, and SWEPCO's settlement is waiting on Texas regulators. In Maryland, public comment hearings on BGE's rate request begin Monday. That wraps the week for Power Bill, a Lantern Podcast. We'll be back with you Monday, October 26.