KEEPING THE LIGHTS ON: How Southern Arizona is growing its power supply to avoid rolling blackouts

Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs and U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm were in Cochise, Ariz. Monday morning to announce a new project in the county.

“Getting more power to more people in more places,” Granholm said.

The plan connects wind and solar fields in New Mexico with Southern Arizona. The project comes from a partnership between state and federal agencies. Gov. Hobbs and Secretary Granholm said this will help bring more renewable energy people across Arizona.

“This is a great day for the future of Arizona’s efficiency,” Gov. Hobbs declared. “And an amazing demonstration of what’s possible when states come together with our federal partners to invest in our communities.”

The governor also said, she wants to increase the state’s solar production because Arizona has sun most of the year.

The Southline Transmission Project, creates 175 miles of transmission that will run through Hildalgo County in New Mexico, the Apache station in Cochise and ends at the Vail substation. This new line will help with the increase in demand and power usage.

“Our grid infrastructure has not kept pace with his in demand and climate change,” Granholm said.

The Department of Energy is spending $1.3 billion on three projects, including the Southline Transmission Project.

But for local leaders, like Benson Mayor Joe Konrad, the true impact of this project is to improve the economy of his community and benefit others in Cochise County.

“I think it’s a huge benefit to Benson from the economic side of it. It’s going to bring jobs and stability to the power grid,” he said. “But I think it helps stabilize the economy and brings some things to the area: New jobs and well paying jobs, and those are very important jobs.”

Having more job opportunities, especially in trade work, will help support those in Benson, Willcox and the surrounding area.

“Highly skilled jobs, that’s very important to a community because Benson had been a little bit depressed the past few years,” Konrad said. “We hover at about 50% of our population being at/or below the poverty level. So, I’m happy to see good stable high paying jobs come to the area.”

Konrad and the other mayors had the ear of Congressman Juan Ciscomani from the beginning of this project.

“The local mayors, who are impacted by this, they reached out to our office. They highlighted the project for us and we jumped on immediately to support it cause it creates jobs, it invests in new forms of energy, expands on forms of energy as well,” Rep. Ciscomani explained .

The congressman told KGUN 9 he introduced a bill to make it easier for homeowners to install solar panels on their homes because he wants to see more opportunities for renewable energy sources in Arizona.

Residents won’t see any action near the Apache station until 2025, but the federal government anticipates 2,400 being created in Cochise County for the project.