Reliable and affordable electric power is the key energy cornerstone for a dynamic modern economy.  When the lights go out, it becomes clear to all of us just how dependent our businesses and personal lives are on electric power.  That is why electric system reliability is so important to Pinnacle West.  Providing reliable electrical service is essential to a successful utility company, and our company has numerous programs in place to help ensure the efficiency and reliability of our electrical system.  This starts with high standards in the planning, engineering and construction of our systems, and continues with the ongoing maintenance and improvements to our system. 

A highly reliable year : Customers benefit from system improvements
A concerted effort to improve the health of the electric grid over the last decade cumulated in an all-time best year for reliability for the company.  In 2007, APS recorded all-time best results in measures that reflect outage frequency.  According to the final Clear Weather System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI) metrics, APS customers saw an average of 0.98 outages, down from 1.0 last year and 1.66 in 1996.  With weather factored, customers experienced 1.57 outages, down from the previous record of 1.60 set in 2002 and 2.78 in 1996.  Distribution outages are down 67 percent from a decade ago.   Put another way, in 2007, despite adding another 34,000 customers, we kept the power flowing 99.98 percent of the time, even with our summer storms.

Meanwhile, APS nearly beat its record for System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI), which measure total minutes of outages per customer to year.  In 2007, the average customer experienced 101 minutes of outages, just off the record of 100.

Our coal units set performance records again with an 88 percent capacity factor, well above the latest national average of 71 percent.

APS was able to achieve these results while serving the fastest growing service territory in the country, with 34,000 new meter sets.

To help ensure system reliability, APS is also involved in several  power line projects  in Arizona. APS is continuously evaluating new technologies and implementing those new technologies that make sense.  Several examples of new technologies that we are implementing are highlighted below:

Smart meters allow APS to serve the customer of the future
The use of "smart meters" and advanced metering technology holds the potential of providing our customers with a quantum leap in service in the future.  The new devices improve reliability, increase control of energy usage and allow for a level of customer service never imagined by prior generations.

Traditional meters only measure customer energy usage, while smart meters, which look no different that their predecessors, have the ability to offer real-time communication between the customer and APS.  Smart meters will allow customers to monitor their energy consumption, make easy comparison and selection of energy plans, control of appliances from remote locations, and potentially lead to fewer outages.  Smart meters update energy usage information hourly as opposed to monthly, allowing the customer to better understand his or her energy use and the effects of conservation measures. 

We installed our 100,000th smart meter last year and the company is currently replacing more than 7,000 meters per month.  Within five years, APS expects to deploy about 800,000 smart meters. 

Click  here to learn more about Smart Meters.

Distribution Operations Management System (DOMS)
APS prides itself on innovation and service, and the latest developments in smart meters and the company’s Distribution Operations Management System (DOMS) are two cutting edge technologies which will benefit customers and APS.

APS designed the DOMS software system to replace wall maps, track outages information in real time, and manage electrical loads, construction and repair crews. Like many utilities across the country, APS relies on paper wall maps with color-coded pins to understand the big picture of its distribution electrical grid.

When completed, DOMS will allow APS to manage and track information and make updates to this grid via computer. Currently, DOMS will be implemented in a pilot phase replacing the Trouble Call Management System in the second quarter of 2008.Overall completion of the majority of the project is anticipated in 2012.

While APS’ traditional methods of managing electrical loads and its response to outages work well, there is a need for new technology to address the continued rapid growth of APS’ service territory. The company's goal is to not only address the growth, but to remain ahead of it. The objective of the DOMS project is to improve outage communications and reliability reporting, and further reduce customer power-outage durations. Improved customer satisfaction and enhanced safety practices are just a couple of benefits that would follow.

Before DOMS can be implemented, some preparation must take place. APS is going through a process of field-phasing verification to ensure the information in the DOMS correlates to what is out in the field. In a service territory that adds, on average, 10 new distribution substations each year and more than 125 new customers each day, that's quite an undertaking.

In the long run, the overall effect of DOMS will be a mass integration of APS services and systems. This will consolidate the systems at five distribution operating centers covering about 35,000-square miles in the Phoenix Metro area and four state regions into one as needed. It also means a merging and addition of computer systems. From this, DOMS will have the potential for quickly providing planning analysis, power-flow analysis and suggested switching tools to maintain the electrical grid.

The implementation of DOMS will improve many of the ways APS does business in the future. The DOMS computer stations will be used to provide simulator training to new operators, enabling them to hit the ground running. It will affect the areas of construction, operations, maintenance, data quality and customer care. For APS crews in the field, DOMS will offer crew management and call-out tools to better monitor manpower requirements. The systems fault locater ability will also reduce the time necessary for troubleshooting to isolate faults.

Raising capacity, reducing line sag
Replacing  an existing transmission line with aluminum conductor composite reinforced transmission line allowed APS to increase a transmission line's capacity without disrupting the surrounding community, while using the existing poles, towers and line location.  The aluminum line carries more than twice the electrical power of conventional lines the same size and does it at higher operating temperatures with minimal conductor sag.  This is another new technology that will help APS meet the demands of the future.  Click here to learn more about this project.