PHOENIX — The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) applauded Friday’s approval by the Attorney General’s office of the net metering rules it had approved in October of last year. The rules allow energy consumers to be compensated for generating their own energy through renewable resources.

The “net metering” rules, which would be required of all Arizona electric utility companies, would provide consumers with a key tool to help offset the costs of installing and generating renewable energy or combined heat and power (CHP) cogeneration in their home or business, primarily through the use of solar technology.

Customers with renewable energy generation capabilities such as solar panels will have two-way meters installed that will measure both the electricity coming in to a property, and the energy going back to the grid. This allows customers to be credited for any excess energy generation that they send back to the regional electricity grid. According to the rules, once each calendar year, a customer’s utility company will issue a check or billing credit for the balance of any energy generated in excess of the customer’s usage.

KINGMAN - The construction industry in Kingman took another hit on Monday when the City Council voted 5-0 to raise water and sewer impact fees.

The cost of “Development Investment Fees” for residential hookups was raised from $1,200 to $1,800. Sewer hookups were raised to $265 per fixture.

The city must find more funds to finance a new wastewater treatment plant because the current facility is out of compliance and insufficient to handle the current capacity. If it does not build a new plant the state could cut off all new building permits in the city.

A “Water and Wastewater Rate and Investment Fee Study” in October determined that to keep up with current growth and fund the new plant the water impact fee should have been raised to $3,500. The $1,800 figure was a compromise because the Council was concerned the hike to $3,500 could further stagnate growth and that at the current rate of growth even with raising impact fees to $3,500 would not be enough to fund servicing growth at the current rate.

Instead the Council raised the base rate all water users pay by $2 a month and instituted the $1,800 impact fee as a means of funding infrastructure growth.