Arizona Corporation Commission holds summer preparedness meeting for utilities
The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) recently held a Special Open Meeting for Summer Preparedness to ensure that Arizona electric and gas companies are equipped to meet consumer demand this summer.
The meeting required Arizona utilities to present Summer Preparedness Plans to the commission. The plans included estimations on peak demands, available resources to meet the demands, and emergency response and preparedness plans in the event of an outage.
“As we move towards summer, Arizonans will start cranking down the thermostats on their air conditioners,” ACC Chairman Doug Little said. “This dramatically increases the amount of electricity our utilities must provide. One of the jobs of the Corporation Commission is to ensure that our utilities are prepared to supply the energy needs of the ratepayers, no matter how hot it gets or how much demand there is on the system. We want to make sure that contingency plans are in place to protect reliability in time of peak demand and minimize outages during the summer monsoons. Overall, our electric utilities do a fantastic job of providing affordable, reliable electricity to Arizonans.”
Seven utilities presented preparedness plans, including Arizona Public Service Electric Company, Salt River Project, Tucson Electric Power, UniSource Energy Services, Arizona G&T Cooperatives, Transwestern Pipeline Company and El Paso Natural Gas.
The presentations will be posted for public viewing on the ACC’s website.
