Attorney General Kris Mayes secured a settlement with APS after a customer’s heat-related death, requiring stronger temperature-based disconnection protections and added safety-net support.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes says a settlement with Arizona Public Service (APS) will tighten the rules that govern when utilities can shut off power during extreme heat—an area that drew national attention after a customer’s death in 2024.
The case centers on alleged disconnections during dangerous temperatures and whether customers received adequate warnings and access to assistance programs.. Under the agreement announced April 15. APS will adopt temperature- and seasonal-based shutoff holds. expand customer notifications and safety-net mechanisms. and pay millions tied to consumer protection efforts.
At the center of Mayes’ argument is the claim that Arizona’s utility oversight has a persistent gap—especially when extreme weather pushes electric service from a “risk management” issue into a basic public safety obligation.. Mayes directed criticism at the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) and APS’s practices surrounding disconnections tied to nonpayment.. While both the ACC and APS disputed Mayes’ characterization of what happened. the settlement still creates new. enforceable commitments for APS.
Under existing ACC rules, companies cannot disconnect electric service during periods of extreme weather.. But the commission offers two compliance pathways: a disconnection moratorium from June 1 through October 15. or a temperature-triggered approach where service is protected if temperatures are above 95 degrees or below 32 degrees.. In the period surrounding Katherine Korman’s death on May 13. 2024. APS had selected the moratorium option and then ended its voluntary participation in the temperature-based approach.
The settlement requires APS to move forward using both temperature and seasonal disconnection holds. aiming to prevent customers from losing power when extreme conditions occur outside the “typical” summer window.. In practice, that’s a crucial shift.. A seasonal rule can leave gaps at the edges—early heat spikes or late-season conditions—while a temperature-triggered approach is meant to follow the weather rather than the calendar.
Mayes also used the settlement to press for systemic change beyond APS.. She called on the ACC to make the stronger temperature-based protections permanent and apply them universally across Arizona utilities. including other providers such as Tucson Electric Power and UNS Electric.. She additionally asked the Legislature to codify those standards because. Mayes argued. the ACC’s current framework could be altered or rescinded without statutory protections.
The message from the other side has been firm.. The ACC’s Executive Director Doug Clark rejected claims that commissioners failed to investigate the circumstances tied to Korman’s death.. Clark said the consent agreement does not contradict ACC findings and emphasized that the payment is not intended to flow through regulatory channels to ratepayers.. APS likewise denied wrongdoing while saying the company agreed to enhancements that benefit customers.
That tension has played out politically as well as procedurally.. With an all-Republican commission and a Mayes office that has accused regulators of oversight failure, the public fight has sharpened.. Commission Chair Nick Myers. for example. publicly clashed with Korman’s family in the aftermath of the case and argued that utilities cannot be expected to continue serving customers who do not pay their bills.. Mayes countered that extreme heat protections are not a fringe policy preference but a basic obligation of utility regulation.
The settlement’s structure reflects both monetary and operational stakes.. APS agreed to pay $800. 000 to cover costs for customers facing service termination this year. and it will also expand its Safety Net Program—designed to alert a friend or family member—so that third parties receive clearer. more emergency-oriented notifications related to past-due bills. disconnection warnings. and outages.. APS is also required to upgrade its notification process so customers receive better information when disconnection is threatened.
Financial commitments include a $1 million contribution to Arizona Consumer Assistance and Education Program bill credits for customers facing shut-offs before September 1. and additional funding tied to consumer outreach.. The settlement also requires APS to pay $2.75 million in shareholder funds to state consumer protection and consumer fraud revolving purposes. along with provisions related to attorney fees.
For Arizona voters and ratepayers. the real question now is what happens next: whether the ACC will broaden these safeguards to other utilities and whether lawmakers will turn Mayes’ proposal into enforceable law.. A settlement with APS can improve outcomes for thousands of customers in one service territory. but it does not automatically fix the broader regulatory architecture that Mayes says left room for preventable risk.. Meanwhile. APS’s ongoing rate case—where Mayes is an intervenor—adds a parallel battle over costs. including a dispute over the scale of a proposed rate increase.. In other words, heat safety policy and utility economics are colliding at the same time.
Whether through commission rulemaking or legislative action. the Korman case is likely to remain a reference point for what Arizonans expect from utility oversight in an era of more frequent extreme temperatures.. Misryoum will continue tracking how the ACC responds to Mayes’ push for permanent. universal protections—and whether regulators treat this moment as a one-off settlement or a lasting recalibration of the rules.
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