Nogales Tap to Kantor Upgrade

Nogales is at the southern end of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) grid and relies on the approximately 55-mile-long Vail to Valencia 138-kV transmission line for power. The addition of the proposed Gateway Substation and connection to the electrical system in Sonora, Mexico would provide an additional source of energy for customers in and around Nogales, Arizona in the event of a transmission line outage or other problem involving the WECC system.

The planned upgrades and new facilities would contribute to reliable electric service in Santa Cruz County as energy demand continues to grow. Benefits include:

• Cost savings through firm and non-firm energy transactions and diversity of peak demand patterns on both sides of the border.
• Potentially lower transmission costs for UES’ electric customers. Increased flow on transmission lines serving the Gateway substation will reduce the percentage of these costs that are paid by UES’ electric customers. Transmission service costs will be allocated to both retail and new wholesale customers.
• Supporting reliability by providing bi-directional power flow and voltage support to each side of the border.
• Creating emergency assistance options for the electrical systems of both the U.S. and Mexico.
• Improving the electric grid and region’s ability to meet future electric capacity requirements, which facilitates business growth that would produce economic benefits.