Safety is our number one priority and we carry that commitment to safety into the community. To that end, we staff a Public Safety department to ensure the public is safe and informed about any possible dangers of electricity.

Both our Customer Service and Public Safety departments work to ensure our customers have access to accurate information on the proper use and handling of electricity. In an effort to educate and protect children, our Public Safety employees target students throughout Arizona through an outreach program aimed at safety and awareness. The department also has reached hundreds of maintenance workers, city employees, firefighters and arborists with targeted electrical safety presentations.

The Energy Delivery organization maintains three electrical safety trailers that provide live demonstrations of the potential danger of electrical conductors and the dramatic impact of electrical current on living tissue to audiences across Arizona.

Business Continuity Planning
At APS, emergency preparedness is a priority every day of the year. Preparing for potential disruptions in the company’s normal operations is the ongoing mission of the Business Continuity department.

“Business Continuity Planning is one of our APS processes that develops plans to map out how we can continue performing critical work at APS in the face of one or more disasters or business interruptions,” said Bill Wiley, Senior Manager, Eco Efficiency and Technology Innovation. “It also looks at risks to our company and opportunities to do things better. The commitment of our employees to continuously improve our ability to work safely and efficiently is key to our success as we work to create a sustainable energy future for Arizona.”

“Business Continuity Planning is a method of addressing business risks that different departments in the company face every day,” said Ellen Willhite, Manager, Business Continuity & Administration. “It includes things such as responding to emergencies, managing those emergencies and then resuming business as usual. The discipline of actually testing our plans and documenting our results also means being able to walk away from the experience with lessons learned.”

BCP addresses a variety of potentially disruptive events. They can range from severe storm damage and equipment failures to terrorism. Regardless of the cause, the result is a negative impact on the availability of one or more of the following:

• Employees
• Buildings/facilities
• Information systems (network, hardware, software, data, communication devices)
• Critical supplies, materials and/or equipment

The BCPs outline effective responses to any of these disruptions and allow critical operations to continue to function. The emphasis is on a coordinated emergency response and timely resumption of business.

APS has a written Business Resumption Plan corporate policy.  A dedicated internal BCP Web site is a valuable resource for departments developing their plans. Employees also can review guidelines for building a business continuity plan and access tools for testing it.

A Business Continuity Management Program identifies 10 key parts of an effective plan. They are:

1. Risk assessment
2. Business impact analysis
3. Emergency response
4. Disaster recovery
5. Business resumption
6. Incident exit strategy
7. Incident command framework
8. Testing and exercising
9. Training and awareness
10. Maintenance and evaluation

Emergency Response
APS employs and trains fire and emergency response teams at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station plant and the Four Corners and Cholla coal plants. Emergency response plans at each facility detail the roles of APS employees in responding to emergencies. We actively participate in local emergency planning committees and provide emergency planning and on-site chemical storage and hazard information to state and local agencies through SARA (Superfund Reauthorization Act of 1986) Tier I and Tier II reports.

The Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station annually provides neighbors with information on plant operations, emergency planning zone maps, emergency classifications, important telephone numbers, procedures, locations of care centers and suggested protective actions. Palo Verde also conducts joint emergency planning drills with local, state and federal emergency response agencies at least twice per year.

The APS Energy Delivery and Sales division also maintains an emergency response plan that helps the organization quickly respond to disasters, both natural and man-made. Periodic reviews and drills help the division improve its emergency response procedures for use during potentially dangerous emergency outages.

PNW and APS also cooperate with local fire and police departments, and state and federal emergency response agencies in homeland security planning, and participates in periodic drills with various agencies, particularly with respect to electric utility system security issues. 

APS also routinely shares intelligence reports with the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center (ACTIC) and has an ongoing relationship with the Department of Homeland Security in securing our Critical Infrastructure