TEP and Citizens to Partner On Major Transmission Project to Border.Business Editors TUCSON, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 17, 2000 Tucson Electric Power Tucson Electric Power (TEP) is an electric utility company serving southern Arizona in the United States. It is a subsidiary of the UniSource Energy Corporation. Tucson Electric Park, a baseball stadium on Tucson's south side, is named for TEP. Co. and Citizens Utilities have agreed to partner on a transmission line project that will significantly enhance electrical service Electrical service, in building wiring, refers to the wiring that connects the electric utility's cables in the street to the building. Specifically, electrical service is the wiring from the street, through the meter and up to the panelboard, but no farther. reliability to Southern Arizona and strengthen the electric power grid in the southwestern United States. The two utilities, which serve the majority of Pima and Santa Cruz counties, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is a legal document describing a bilateral or multilateral agreement between parties. It expresses a convergence of will between the parties, indicating an intended common line of action and may not imply a legal commitment. (MOU (Minutes Of Usage) A metric used to compute billing and/or statistics for telephone calls or other network use. ) to jointly develop the interconnection and transmission project in Southern Arizona leading to the Mexico border. "There are important benefits to our partnership in this project," said Jim Pignatelli, chairman, president and chief executive officer of TEP's parent company, UniSource Energy Corp. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : UNS Uns The symbol for the element unnilseptium. ). "Primarily, we fulfill the business needs of both companies by improving reliability for Citizens' customers and setting the stage for establishing the first major interconnection between Arizona and Mexico." The project is in the early planning stage. Both TEP TEP Tucson Electric Power TEP Tomographie par Emission de Positons (French: Nuclear medicine imaging) TEP Technical Evaluation Panel TEP The English Patient (movie) TEP Transportation Enhancement Program and Citizens are seeking input from those who could be affected by the project, including environmental groups, customers and property owners. By encouraging participation from these groups, the companies' goal is to determine a route for the transmission line that will be cost effective and have the smallest environmental impact on the area. "A large benefit of this partnership is the opportunity to minimize the impact on the corridor to our service territory while allowing us to construct a new transmission line at a lower cost than building our own facilities," said Dan McCarthy, Citizens' Arizona vice president of energy operations. "We plan to use as much of the existing right-of-way and infrastructure as possible." Both companies had been involved in separate processes that would have resulted in the addition of transmission facilities in Southern Arizona. Citizens is currently engaged in several service improvement initiatives in order to comply with an order from the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC See adaptive cruise control. ) to improve reliability for its customers in Santa Cruz County. One component of Citizens' plan is construction of a new 115,000-volt transmission line by Dec. 31, 2003. TEP recently participated with the Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE CFE Conventional Forces in Europe (treaty) CFE Cash Flow to Equity (finance/accounting) CFE Comisión Federal de Electricidad (México) CFE Certified Fraud Examiner ), Mexico's federal energy agency, in a joint feasibility study to develop an interconnection with Mexico. The study concluded that a 345,000-volt interconnection from TEP's substation near Sahuarita, Ariz., to CFE's system in Sonora, Mexico, is feasible. In a letter drafted after completion of the study, CFE expressed support for an interconnection project and will support TEP's efforts in the regulatory process. "It simply makes good business sense to work together to build one line in two segments that serves both companies' purposes instead of us each undertaking our own project," Pignatelli said. "It also opens the door to work with other utilities in our region to ensure that this project enhances reliability in the western grid." The next step in the project will be for the two companies to exchange information gathered in their separate processes. The MOU contains a clause that transfers or assigns Citizens' rights in the project to Cap Rock Energy Corp. upon closing of the sale of Citizens' electric assets to Cap Rock. UniSource Energy Corp. is engaged in the development and application of energy services and new energy technologies. UniSource Energy's principal subsidiaries include TEP; Global Solar Energy, a designer and manufacturer of state-of-the-art thin-film photovoltaic The generation of voltage by a material that is exposed to light in the visible and invisible ranges. See photoelectric and photovoltaic cell. products; Nations Energy Corp., an independent power developer; Southwest Energy Solutions, a regional services provider; and SWPP SWPP Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan SWPP Society of Wedding & Portrait Photographers SWPP Southwest Power Pool (Little Rock, AR) SWPP Source Water Petition Program (EPA) Investment Co. Citizens Utilities Co. is a nationwide diversified utility and communications company providing electric, gas, water/wastewater and a broad spectrum of telecommunications services to more than 1.9 million customers in 22 states. Citizens is one of Arizona's largest utilities, providing services to more than 400,000 customers throughout the state. Citizens' electric utility operations serve more than 67,000 customers in Santa Cruz and Mohave counties. TEP Public Affairs P.O. Box 711 Tucson, AZ 85702 520/884-3742 www.tucsonelectric.com |
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