Keeping the Lights on Since 1961
By Mandi Greenmyer and Chris Jimenez
Arizona Electric Power Cooperative Inc. (AEPCO), a not-for-profit electric generation and transmission cooperative, was established in 1961 by 4 founding electric cooperative members—Trico Electric Cooperative, Graham County Electric Cooperative, Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative, and Duncan Valley Electric Cooperative. Mohave Electric Cooperative joined in 1973, and Anza Electric Cooperative joined in 1979.
AEPCO was created to provide electricity to farmers, ranchers and small communities in rural Arizona that had been overlooked by for-profit, investorowned utilities.
After AEPCO’s first natural gas combustion turbine was installed in 1963, more generation was added throughout the years to provide reliable, local power to serve the growing population and load growth in electric cooperatives’ service areas. AEPCO’s dedicated workforce at Apache Station in Cochise continues to efficiently operate these legacy units through diligent maintenance servicing and a conscientious focus on keeping operating costs low. These Apache Station resources—along with modest hydropower allocations and market transactions with neighboring utilities— allowed AEPCO to provide stable, reliable, and affordable electric service to our members for several decades.
But things are now changing quickly and dramatically. Energy markets are plagued with rising costs as coal generation is retired. The region continues to grow rapidly, and utilities no longer have excess electricity available for purchase. Hydropower resources are becoming increasingly curtailed, and AEPCO’s legacy fleet struggles to compete in newer markets that reward flexibility with more intermittent renewable power resources available on the system.
Although the world around us has changed, AEPCO and its members have come together to renew their commitment to affordable, reliable, and local electricity. The Reliable Energy Plan is how we plan to honor this commitment.
The Reliable Energy Plan uses proven and tested technology—such as the combustion turbines we built in 1963— with a newer, more efficient, and flexible natural gas generation that will perform well in emerging markets and complement significant investments in solar, wind, and battery storage technologies.
Because the electric cooperatives serve some of the most economically disadvantaged areas in the region, it is imperative that AEPCO develops a diversity of new, but proven, resources at the lowest possible cost.
The result of several years of strategic planning with AEPCO’s member cooperatives, an all-source resource procurement process, and a myriad of sophisticated resource planning modeling scenarios, the Reliable Energy Plan will meet load growth, peak demand, market flexibility requirements and improve system reliability.
The Reliable Energy Plan includes:
- Installing battery energy storage systems at 3 local member sites; in progress.
- Generating flexible, efficient natural gas at Apache Station; in progress.
- Generating flexible, efficient natural gas at Mohave Energy Park; in development.
- Participating in a renewable wind power project; under negotiation.
- Building a new solar and battery energy storage at Apache Station; in progress.
- Building a new solar and battery energy storage project in central Arizona; under negotiation.
AEPCO determined the additions of solar, wind, and battery storage—when combined with the installations of new flexible and efficient natural gas turbines— resulted in the most affordable, reliable, and diversified energy mix.
AEPCO’s future, like its past, must be guided by its member cooperatives for the benefit of the member cooperatives. The result of this process is the Reliable Energy Plan with broad support and participation among our distribution cooperative and public power members that ensures the generation and transmission cooperative can reliably and affordably keep the lights on for another 60 years.
