Arizona utilities APS and UNS received federal grants to improve the capacity and reliability of their electric grids amid weather threats and rising demand. Some funding will ease wildfire risks.
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Arizona power utilities have snagged federal funding for three projects designed to enhance the state’s electricity grid, largely in rural areas, and to add wildfire protections.
Phoenix-based Arizona Public Service received funding for two projects to reduce wildfire risks and implement “smart” monitoring technologies, while UNS Electric in Tucson received a grant to enhance the electrical grid in Santa Cruz County, in southeastern Arizona. They are part of roughly $2 billion in federal funding for 38 projects across the nation announced Friday by the Grid Deployment Office of the U.S. Department of Energy.
APS received two federal grants totaling $70 million for projects to strengthen grid resilience through the use of new technologies, expand wildfire prevention/mitigation measures and help meet growing energy needs. Some of the programs improve power systems in rural, tribal and disadvantaged communities.
“This funding, along with the approximately $2 billion a year APS invests in maintenance and upgrades, will support large-scale, innovative engineering projects designed to bolster the delivery of reliable energy our customers count on,” said Jacob Tetlow, APS’ executive vice president of operations, in a prepared statement.
One $50 million grant will help APS better monitor its grid for wildfire threats and upgrade infrastructure. The company will add wildfire-prevention devices, deploy advanced weather-monitoring systems, upgrade or replace wood utility polls with steel ones and install microgrids in vulnerable areas.
Microgrids are local energy systems capable of operating independently from the main power grid.
APS expects the project will improve energy reliability for roughly 289,000 metered customers, with 69% of the project carried out in rural, tribal or disadvantaged communities.
Some technology will enable APS to make real-time, power-distribution adjustments and allow for targeted power shutoffs. The upgrades also will lessen the chance that sparks from traditional operations could trigger a wildfire.
In addition, APS will deploy 300 weather stations and 300 strategically placed cameras for use with advanced fire-modeling software. This will provide the company with real-time information about weather conditions and fire risks.
The company expects these improvements will benefit around 289,000 metered customers.
APS also will receive $20 million to implement new “smart grid” technology to help the company reroute electricity during outages and shorten times before electricity is restored, as the company modernizes its infrastructure to address growing energy demands, incorporate clean technologies and prevent weather-related disruptions.
The improvements will include the use of advanced analytics to help APS track energy patterns and project future needs, improve reliability in rural and tribal communities and increase power deliveries by up to 15% on some transmission lines. The company expects these improvements will benefit around 188,000 metered customers.
To complement the $70 million in combined federal funding for the two projects, APS plans to spend around $111 million on the projects and estimates they will generate more than 50 jobs.
UNS Electric, which provides service as UniSource Energy Services, plans to enhance the resilience and capacity of a critical transmission system in Santa Cruz County through the construction of a second transmission line. The project will enhance reliability and add renewable-energy capacity for the county. Improved reliability will protect underserved communities from outages and promote parity in clean-energy adoption, according to federal officials.
The existing transmission system faces recurring weather-related and operational problems.
This project would add redundancy to ensure a dependable power supply for Santa Cruz County. Construction of this infrastructure also would further economic opportunities for the community and encourage private investments.
Partners in the project include Nogales, the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, Sun Corridor, the Southeastern Arizona Governments Organization, the Greater Nogales-Santa Cruz County Port Authority, Santa Cruz County, the Santa Cruz County Provisional Community College District and the University of Arizona College of Engineering.
The federal government will pay $75 million and UNS Electric and its partners will pay nearly $103 million.
The 38 federally-funded projects nationally will help protect the nation’s power grid against growing threats of extreme weather, lower costs for communities and increase grid capacity to meet load growth stemming from an increase in manufacturing, electric vehicles and data centers, for which metro Phoenix has become a national leader.
Many of the projects will implement new, innovative transmission and distribution equipment along with upgrades to boost capacity, speed up connections for clean-energy projects, support nearly 6,000 jobs and encourage private investments.
The projects span 42 states and the District of Columbia and include six projects across the Southeast that President Biden announced during his recent trip to Florida. Those six projects include utilities that were hit by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Reach the writer at russ.wiles@arizonarepublic.com.