APS outlines wildfire mitigation, public-safety power shutoff procedures for Sedona

Arizona Public Service (APS) representatives told the Sedona City Council on a wildfire-preparedness briefing that the utility is expanding and refining measures intended to reduce wildfire risk across its northern Arizona service territory, including several circuits that run through Sedona.

Frank, an Arizona Public Service wildfire mitigation official, said APS operates about 1,500 circuits in Arizona and has identified 237 feeders as within high fire-risk areas, with about 95 of those located in northern Arizona. "We have a very comprehensive fire mitigation plan, that includes a lot of different things," Frank said, describing vegetation management, a hazard-tree program, pole hardening and new protective devices.

The presentation listed specific technical measures APS is deploying: a program APS calls DSAP (defensible space around poles) that clears and treats roughly 10 feet around equipment such as transformers and switches; replacement of conventional fuses with "non‑expulsion" fuses designed to reduce sparking; application of a heat‑dissipating mesh wrap on wood poles; expanded patrols including helicopters and infrared‑equipped drones; and additional grid‑hardening devices and fault indicators to shorten outage‑response times.

Why it matters: Councilors pressed APS on how those measures intersect with the risk of fast-moving, wind‑driven fires and on what residents should expect if APS implements a public safety power shutoff (PSPS). "When we get to preparedness level 3... that's when we go into what's called non reclosing," Frank said, explaining that APS can disable automatic reclosing on reclosers during extreme fire risk, which can lengthen outages while crews patrol lines before re‑energizing them.

APS said PSPS planning now identifies three PSPS zones that affect parts of Sedona: an Enchantment area circuit (about 27 customers), a Cathedral Rock area circuit (size not specified in detail), and a corridor from northern Sedona into Oak Creek Canyon affecting roughly 600–800 customers. Frank said APS had 13 circuits designated in PSPS zones across its territory last year and has expanded those zones this season. "Our customers... will be receiving texts, emails, and phone calls every day if they are in that area," he said, describing a multi‑day notification process for potential shutoffs.

County emergency manager Ashley told the council the county’s emergency management office has been coordinating with APS and local public safety partners and is preparing to assess and respond if PSPS events occur. "Once we get that notification that a PSPS is going to occur, we're gonna notify all our stakeholders, and we're going to start assessing what that impact's going to be," Ashley said. She described possible actions including cooperator calls, activation of the county emergency operations center for essential staff, assessment of staffing for dispatch, fire and law enforcement, and evaluating needs for cooling centers, Red Cross sheltering, and animal sheltering for large animals if outages are prolonged.

Councilors pressed APS about equipment siting, undergrounding and camera placement. Frank said APS is studying locations where overhead lines cross primary evacuation routes and has identified several such crossings in the Sabola area; some crossings have already been completed and others are on an APS schedule. On undergrounding, Frank said the decision involves multiple factors — terrain, archaeological constraints, environmental impact, reliability, capacity needs and cost — and that some segments of the proposed Maguireville line will be undergrounded where terrain permits. He said projects that increase capital costs can be spread across all customers under current regulation, which is why neighborhood‑led financing options exist.

Improvement district option: APS described an "improvement district" program under which a neighborhood that requests undergrounding can accept the capital cost locally instead of having the cost spread to all APS customers. Frank said details about amortization and consenting rules would be provided on request; the council asked the utility to return with specifics.

Cameras and modeling: APS described two camera types — pan/tilt/zoom and AI‑enabled cameras — and an expanding network of weather stations. Frank said AI cameras triangulate smoke and can distinguish between engine heat and actual fire, automatically alerting APS’s fire mitigation team. He credited two AI cameras with early detection of a recent Brady Fire near Mayer, which was triangulated and reported to emergency services in the inception phase. APS also said it uses advanced fire‑modeling software and has added meteorologists to its mitigation team to interpret real‑time and historical data.

Council and staff follow-up: Councilors asked APS to pursue siting an AI camera at the Sedona airport and to share more detailed maps of PSPS zones and affected customer counts; the city manager said the city will consider a budget request to add a dedicated emergency‑management position. City and county officials also asked APS to coordinate directly with local water providers (for customers reliant on well pumps) and with municipal leaders so managers and elected officials receive early notifications.

No formal council action was taken at the meeting. The briefing concluded with council appreciation for APS and county emergency management coordination and a request for more detail on neighborhood undergrounding options and PSPS notification procedures.

Ending note: APS representatives urged residents to sign up for medically monitored customer lists and county emergency notifications and to prepare household continuity plans in case of PSPS or other extended outages.