Arkansas Public Service Commission Chair Ted Thomas, a towering presence among MISO and SPP stakeholders, said his decision to step down from the state’s regulatory body and enter the private sector is simply a matter of making room for his successor.

Appointed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson in 2015, and with four years left on his term, he said that with a new governor taking office next year, it is time to move on.

“I didn’t want it to last forever,” Thomas told RTO Insider on Monday. “I had a great working relationship with Hutchinson. I thought it best to let the other person make their own choice.”

Sarah Huckabee Sanders — former White House press secretary under President Donald Trump and the daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee — is a heavy favorite to win the state’s gubernatorial election in November. Hutchinson is term limited.

Thomas made his decision to resign public last week after submitting a resignation letter to Hutchinson on Sept. 9. The resignation is effective Oct. 1.

Almost always the tallest person in the room, Thomas has been heavily involved in regulatory matters over the last couple of years. In addition to serving on SPP’s Regional State Committee (RSC), several other stakeholder and regulatory groups, and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ Electricity Committee, he was appointed last year to FERC’s Joint Federal-State Task Force on Electric Transmission that was charged with unleashing transmission expansion to improve resilience and connect new renewable generation (AD21-15). (See FERC-State Task Force Considers Clustering, ‘Fast Track’ to Clear Queues.)

That work continues. Thomas expressed regret about stepping away from the task force before it completes its task.

“I’m sure there’s more to do, but we’ve talked about a lot of the issues on the front end,” he said.

“This is sad for all of us who follow utility regulation,” tweeted Matt Christiansen, general counsel at FERC. “I am not sure there’s anyone whose perspective I have been more eager to hear over the last several years than Chair Thomas’.”

“Big shoes!” added energy consultant Karl Rabago, a former Texas commissioner.

Thomas said he has enjoyed working with the grid operators and their staffs, saying it was a big part of his tenure. He named-checked staff from SPP’s Cost Allocation Working Group and the Organization of MISO States (OMS) and said he was “very lucky to get to know some of those people.”

“You’re creating value for the ratepayers” when working with RTOs,” Thomas said. “There are a lot of benefits, but it’s not easy to earn them. You have to work through the stakeholder process.”

If there’s a regret for Thomas, it might be not seeing through the SPP Improved Resource Availability Task Force that he chairs. The group is responsible for addressing recommendations following the RTO’s review of its response to the February 2021 winter storm.

“That’s very important work,” he said, noting the task force is still in the middle of its assignment.

Thomas hinted he may still be visible in future grid operator circles, but right now, he has work to do.

“I’ll run through the tape,” he said.

Arkansas PSC Commissioner Justin Tate will take Thomas’ place on the RSC, beginning with October’s meeting. Fellow Commissioner Kimberly O’Guinn will remain on the OMS, Thomas said.

The resignation came two days after Thomas colorfully recused himself from a solar energy case involving Petit Jean Electric Cooperative and other utilities over alleged unauthorized net-metering practices. He accused Petit Jean of making false criminal accusations against him and said it was “soullessly” wielding “the billy club of the monopolist” and called the utility a “litigation machine paid for by the same ‘members’ that they club.”

The utilities requested Thomas’ recusal after he made comments during a legislative committee hearing earlier this year. They said his comments on interconnection requirements reflected a “predisposition or prejudgment of key issues.”

Thomas told an Arkansas newspaper that his resignation had “nothing to do” with the case, but that “no one will believe that.”

In his recusal Thomas wrote that the utility had four times defied PSC orders to file a tariff that included statutory language to interconnect residential solar customers to the grid.

“Then, like a Saul Goodman stunt, Petit Jean’s counsel falsely accused me of criminal conduct and sought my recusal. Better call Saul!” he said, referring to the lawyer character from the TV shows “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,” in making his point.

“Solar panels have been sitting in the sun not interconnected for months and months, and a formal PSC process would be litigated and appealed for additional months, if not years,” Thomas said. “This result seems to be the monopolist’s intended purpose. I do not wish to be used as a weapon by the monopolist in the endless expensive efforts to keep people … from interconnection to the grid.

“I’m all good, man. I recuse.”

“I’m very contentious. It’s in my DNA,” Thomas said Monday. “If someone wants to throw down, let’s throw down. Perhaps I could be a better person, but if we have to rumble, let’s rumble.”

Thomas has previously served as chief deputy prosecuting attorney for Arkansas’ 20th Judicial District, an administrative law judge for the PSC, Gov. Huckabee’s budget director and a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives, where he was chairman of the State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee during his final term.

The Arkansas Advanced Energy Association last year honored Thomas with its Ron Bell Advanced Energy Leadership Award for outstanding contributions to the renewable power, efficiency and energy contracting industry.