On Monday, Arizona Corporation Commission Chairman Doug Little opened a new docket to revise the state's Renewable Energy Standards and Tariff rules (REST).

Little said 30 percent renewables by 2030 should be Arizona’s new target. The current goal is 15 percent by 2025. 

Little said the current rules were developed when the technology and markets for wind and solar were in their infancy. But as costs have dropped significantly, he believes the commission needs to reevaluate incentives, including whether a “carve out” for distributed generation still makes sense. 

"I'm not saying they don't. I'm not saying they do," Little told KJZZ.

“I'm saying that we need to look at it because the whole purpose behind the carve out was to encourage a particular segment, and that segment right now is a huge industry in the United State, it’s not a tiny thing anymore," he said, noting the level of penetration for rooftop solar has grown substantially. 

The carve out requires that 30 percent of the renewable mix comes from distributed generation like rooftop solar.  

The commission is also currently trying to determine the real value of rooftop solar— in comparison to other forms of energy— and those findings will impact any new standards, Little said. 

Little said they should also consider net-metering, which reimburses solar customers hooked up to the grid for their excess power, during this process of revising the REST rules. However, he said that could mean finding new methods of compensating customers for their energy, not simply changing the rate. 

But some like Kris Mayes, who’s a former corporation commissioner now representing solar interests, are already concerned. 

“It [the carve out] says to the utilities, you can’t own it all," Mayes said. "The commission has to be very careful about eliminating that carve out because that gives each individual consumer the opportunity to go solar," she said.