Arizona Public Service officials were out in force to answer questions regarding a proposed project designed to reduce potential power issues in the Village of Oak Creek.
On June 5, APS hosted an open house to discuss the plan to connect the Oak Creek Substation to the McGuireville Substation, which APS officials say will ensure reliability for customers throughout the Village of Oak Creek and McGuireville area.
According to an APS document, the purpose of this project is to increase the reliability in the area by connecting the McGuireville Substation — located near Cornville Road and Restoration Loop — and the Oak Creek Substation near State Route 179 and Jacks Canyon Road with a new 69,000-volt sub-transmission line.
This will minimize the loss of the ability to serve customers in the Oak Creek area, McGuireville and Cornville in the event of outages on either the existing Verde to Capital Butte 69kV line and/or the Quail Springs to McGuireville 69kV line, it states. Different routes are being consid¬ered for the power lines and 65-foot-high poles.
“The additional reliability will reduce customer outages and the duration of outages that do occur,” APS Project Manager Kevin Duncan said following the open house. “The new line will also help strengthen overall reliability throughout the region. This will also help in the event of additional needed electrical capacity in the area in the future.”
The primary reason for connecting the project at both the Oak Creek and McGuireville substations is that the substations are each at the end of long radial segments of line, the document states. A radial line is a line that serves a substation without a redundant or backup power line from another source. By connecting the Oak Creek and McGuireville substations, it connects the radial power lines at each substation and provides backup for each line.
This time last year, APS hired Environmental Planning Group to assist in evaluating route alternatives, to assess potential environmental impacts and to support the public outreach process. Information about land use, visual, biological, cultural and recreational resources for the area has been collected. This information has been used for preliminary route alternatives within the study area.
Because the route alignment will cross U.S. Forest Service land, APS is coordinating with the Coconino National Forest’s Red Rock Ranger District and will move forward with future permitting efforts in the next phases of the siting process.
Duncan said a preliminary cost estimate, at the earliest, would follow identification and selection of the final route.
When developing route alternatives, APS evaluates many criteria including:
- Environmental impacts
- Engineering and construction feasibility
- Land acquisition timing and costs
- Regulatory approvals
- Potential impacts to existing and planned neighborhoods
- Input from agencies and the public
Duncan said transmission planners work to identify areas of the entire system where there are opportunities to improve reliability. There is no particular concern with these lines or substations, rather an opportunity and need to improve reliability for customers in the area. As of now, the project is slated to be completed in summer 2024.
“The in-service date is established based on the need, but also to accommodate permitting time frames — in this case, with the Coconino National Forest — land and right-of-way acquisition and construction,” he said.
The VOC open house was one of several meetings APS has had with both the public as well as USFS and Yavapai County officials. Additional public meetings will be scheduled as the project moves forward.
“We appreciate the feedback that we have received, both from the open house, as well as our other public outreach methods,” Duncan said. “We’ve received questions about the specifics of the poles that will replace segments of the existing 69kV line in the Village of Oak Creek, questions about undergrounding portions of the line and preferences regarding placement of the new lines on the Coconino National Forest, especially when in the vicinity of roadways.”
Ron Eland can be reached at 282-7795, ext. 122 or by email at reland@larsonnewspapers.com
