APS describes wildfire mitigation steps, explains how public safety power shutoffs would be triggered

Arizona Public Service representatives told the Chino Valley Town Council on April 14 that the utility has stepped up a range of wildfire‑mitigation measures and described how a public safety power shutoff (PSPS) would be carried out if risk reaches a high preparedness level.

Frank Sanderson of APS, addressing the council, said the company balances reliability with public safety and has expanded inspections, vegetation clearing and technology to detect hazards. "Reliability is very important to APS. We pride ourselves in when you flip the switch, the light turns on. The one thing that is more important than that is the safety of our customers and communities," Sanderson said.

Sanderson reviewed operational changes used to reduce ignition risk: annual and seasonal patrols of more than 38,000 miles of distribution and transmission lines; defensible‑space clearing (10 feet) around poles that house devices such as transformers or reclosers; use of heat‑dissipating fire wraps on wooden poles that are vulnerable to flame; and installation of fault indicators to speed field crews' location of problems. He also described use of drones with infrared sensors and two types of cameras — pan‑tilt zoom and AI‑equipped panoramic cameras — to detect fires early and share alerts with emergency management partners.

APS representatives said the utility maintains five preparedness levels that govern operations. At higher risk levels, Sanderson said APS would impose a "no‑reclose" policy on reclosers so circuits that detect a fault are left open until a field inspection can confirm it is safe to reclose. That policy is intended to prevent a device from automatically reclosing onto a live fault and potentially sparking a wildfire.

Sanderson outlined the PSPS communication sequence: an internal incident command, advance notifications to municipal leadership and, beginning several days ahead of a planned shutoff, repeated customer notices by phone, email, text and social media. He said APS aims to confirm an imminent shutoff roughly two hours before the event and to dispatch large field patrols (15–45 personnel) to inspect lines before power is restored.

Sanderson also described how the utility uses weather stations and a predictive platform that factors topography, vegetation type and moisture to model how a fire would spread. APS has not activated a PSPS in the council’s area to date, he said, but is increasing camera deployments (targeting 60 cameras in the near term) and weather stations to improve detection and reduce response time.

Council members thanked APS for the briefing and for recent reliability work in Chino Valley. No vote or formal action was required. The presentation made clear the tools APS intends to use to reduce wildfire risk and how a PSPS would be operationalized and communicated to residents if conditions require it.