Our community engagement teams collaborate with representatives from a wide range of entities – including state, county, municipal and tribal governments, military bases, school districts, nonprofits, business organizations and public interest groups.

We use a variety of communications channels to develop dialogue in our communities, such as open houses, business and nonprofit forums and other special events. These enable us to gather feedback from participants, inform them about issues that may affect their communities and APS, and identify opportunities for action. The Arizona Corporation Commission has a process in place for our customers or stakeholders to raise concerns.

In 2022, APS remained committed to providing support to our nonprofit partners. We partnered with nonprofits to expand services for housing and food security and invested in our teachers as a commitment to education. Our community engagement highlights include:

• Supply My Class. To help ease the burden on teachers and provide students with resources they need, APS granted $750,000 to 1,500 randomly selected teachers at Title I schools in APS service territory with $500 awards to purchase classroom supplies. We dedicated our first 100 awards to new teachers just getting started. 77% of the eligible schools had at least one teacher selected. 2022 marked the fifth year of the program.

• Supply My Food Bank. Recognizing the growing food security crisis in our community, we responded with Supply My Food Bank. APS donated to local food banks, in turn providing 6.8 million meals to the community. Three-hundred APS employees, friends and family members participated in multiple volunteer events at local food banks during their busiest times of year and collected more than 3,000 pounds of food.

• Housing Support. In partnership with Arizona Community Foundation, APS contributed $1 million dollars to the Affordable Housing Fund to support developing projects with innovative solutions for affordable housing. We also donated to the Technical Assistance Partnership’s Mobile Home Park Emergency Relief Fund to assist families across the Valley who are facing immediate eviction due to the sale and reuse of mobile home parks. Continued partnerships with UMOM, A New Leaf, St. Vincent de Paul, CASS, Phoenix Indian Center, Trellis and others provide funding to help ensure individuals and families remain at home through eviction-prevention assistance or have places to seek shelter.

Philanthropy. As Arizona stewards, we do what is right for the people and prosperity of our state. The Phoenix Business Journal ranked us as the largest corporate philanthropist and the second largest corporate volunteer program in the Phoenix area. In addition, we donated more than $14.7 million to charitable organizations that contribute to the vitality of Arizona, with an emphasis on arts and culture, civic and economic development, education and employment, and human services.

As part of the corporate giving program, the APS Foundation supports programs that enhance academic achievement in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). A workforce proficient in STEM skills is critical to attracting and retaining high-quality businesses and industries to the state. The APS Foundation targets projects that help educators increase content knowledge in STEM subjects as well as the ability to transfer this knowledge effectively to students. In 2022, the APS Foundation funded 15 programs that directly impact teachers and students across Arizona, from Metro Phoenix to surrounding rural communities. Grants that provide critical STEM training for nearly 3,300 teachers and STEM engagement and learning for more than 60,000 students.

Volunteerism. Through the APS Community Connecters volunteer program, employees invest their time to improve lives in the communities we serve. Working hand-in-hand with our nonprofit partners caring for those who need it the most is embedded in APS’ culture. President Ted Geisler attributes the team at APS as being its secret sauce. “When it comes to providing the level of dedication, passion, hard work, tenacity and caring concern for their communities, we are unique.” Our employees stepped up to volunteer at over 200 events, contributing a total of 83,587 hours of support. Those efforts result in a value of $2.5 million donated to the community.

Other various volunteer activities in 2022 include:

• Tree planting events at schools, parks, and nonprofit organizations

• Hand delivered surprises to Supply My Class awardees

• Cooked and served meals at Ronald McDonald House

• Served as mentors and on career panels for Jobs for Arizona Graduates, , Aguila, University of Arizona and Arizona State University

• Assisted in building homes with Habitat for Humanity

• Early morning shifts with the City of Phoenix passing out heat relief

• Stuffed heat-relief support bags for the Salvation Army

In addition to hands-on volunteer activities, our employees sit on the boards of more than 250 Arizona community organizations, nonprofit organizations, civic and industry groups. Employee engagement of this kind not only assists those nonprofits but also produces valuable human-capital development, as volunteerism increases loyalty, performance and job satisfaction while providing employees with professional development opportunities.

Learn more about our performance and results in our Community Impact Report.

We understand that the transition away from coal-fired power plants toward a clean energy future will pose unique economic challenges for the communities around the plants. We’ve worked collaboratively with stakeholders and leaders of the Navajo Nation to consider the impacts of ceasing operation of APS coal-fired power plants on the communities surrounding those facilities to propose a comprehensive coal communities transition plan. The proposed framework provides for substantial financial and economic development support to build economic opportunities and addresses a transition strategy for plant employees. We are committed to continuing our established partnership with the Navajo Nation by addressing other areas as well, including expanding electrification and developing tribal renewable projects. Our proposed plan supports the Navajo Nation, where the Four Corners Power Plant is located, and the communities surrounding the Cholla Power Plant and the Hopi Tribe, which is impacted by closure of the Navajo Generating Station. On November 2, 2021, the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) approved a modified plan that will provide:

• Navajo Nation - $10 million and up to $1.25 million for the electrification of homes and businesses
• Navajo County Communities - $500,000
• Hopi Tribe - $1 million and up to$1.25 million for electrification of homes and businesses

The project will enhance the APS communications system that is used to operate the electric grid by installing high speed fiber optic lines along our transmission corridors. It supports rural communities by providing surplus capacity on the fiber optic lines that local service providers can lease to deliver this vital service to homes and businesses across the region. In the next few years, this program will complete a loop that travels from Phoenix through Payson, Joseph City, Winslow, Flagstaff, Prescott and back to Phoenix. We believe our investment in delivering a more resilient and high-speed network to our communities will support education and economic development and close the digital divide between rural and metro areas. The revenue from leasing this surplus fiber capacity to carriers in rural communities will be returned to APS customers.

In 2022, we partnered with the Arizona Commerce Authority, the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, and other metropolitan and rural economic development organizations to attract 29 new and expanding companies to our service territory, creating an estimated 8,800 new jobs and driving more than $25 billion in capital investment. Some of these companies include Nestle, Williams Sonoma, Proctor & Gamble, and expansions by Aligned Energy and Tawain Semiconductor (TSMC). Collectively, these projects will add a significant number of new megawatts of power to the APS system as they establish operations.

In 2021, we partnered with the Arizona Commerce Authority, the GPEC and other metropolitan and rural economic development organizations to attract 25 new and expanding companies to our service territory, creating an estimated 5,000 new jobs and driving more than $1.4 billion in capital investment. Some of these companies include KORE Power, Kohler, Whitehall Industries, Meyer Burger and Sunlit Chemical. Collectively, these projects will add a significant number of new megawatts of power to the APS system as they establish operations.

The department also focused on supporting various Arizona communities with economic development strategic planning efforts and furthering support of the state’s entrepreneurial community creating an even stronger foundation for businesses to invest and expand in Arizona. This is illustrated in our continued investment in statewide business intelligence tools such as SizeUpArizona.com and ArizonaProspector.com, which provide data support to small- and medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurs, as well as community and county economic development organizations, allowing them to establish, grow and identify their competitive position within the state.

Learn more about our economic development.