UniSource briefs Nogales council on Santa Cruz Reliability North transmission project

Representatives of UniSource Energy Services and Tucson Electric Power briefed the Nogales City Council on April 2 about the Santa Cruz Reliability North (SCR North) project, a three‑phase effort to add a second high‑voltage transmission connection into Santa Cruz County and reduce the risk of outages and service interruptions.

“Once this project is in service, it will provide full redundancy so that if there is something that occurs on now one of those two transmission lines, that power will immediately flow in the other direction, from a different source, and you will see no interruption in service,” Clark Bridal, UniSource’s manager for siting, outreach and engagement, told the council.

Bridal and Teresa Bravo (UniSource government relations) described the problem: Santa Cruz County and Nogales currently rely largely on a single transmission path. That single path leaves the community vulnerable to interruptions — the presenters cited a multi‑day service event in the recent past that disrupted schools, businesses and cross‑border commerce.

The SCR program is divided into three phases, Bridal said. Phase 1 (SCR North) would create a second regional connection near the Green Valley/Canoa Ranch area and link to the Cantor substation on the Pima/Santa Cruz county line; phase 2 would rebuild a constrained segment on the existing line so that conductor capacity can be increased; and phase 3 would add a second transmission path from Cantor to Nogales. Bridal said routing and siting studies are under way for phases 1 and 3, and public outreach and an Arizona Corporation Commission permitting process (a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility) will be required.

UniSource said phase 1 siting work is in progress, that public meetings have been held in Green Valley and Amado, and that it expects hearings before the Arizona Power Plant and Transmission Line Siting Committee in the fall with a corporation commission decision projected in early 2026. The company outlined an accelerated construction timetable that would, in the best case, place phase 1 construction in 2027–2028, phase 2 in 2028–2029, and phase 3 completed by 2030.

Bridal said the project would provide two main benefits: seamless redundancy to prevent customer outages when a single path is damaged, and added capacity to meet future economic development. He emphasized that the SCR North project is not the same as other transmission work in the area tied to specific mining projects, though all customers benefit from increased reliability.

Council members asked about local impacts, rights‑of‑way and community objections. Bridal acknowledged typical local resistance — residents sometimes object when lines pass through residential areas — and said UniSource would pursue route‑selection processes that incorporate public input and environmental and visual considerations. He said the company is working with federal, state and local agencies and plans additional public outreach in coming months, including a kickoff for phase 3 in May.

No council vote was held; the session was a briefing and question‑and‑answer period.