unisource-reliability

Reliable. Resilient. Ready.

UniSource Energy Services is a national leader in service reliability. We’re working around the clock to operate, maintain and improve our facilities and are ready to respond immediately to any interruption in service.

Reliability

We’re working every day to make our system stronger, more secure and even more reliable.

UniSource ranks in the top quartile of all electric utilities across the country for service reliability – and we’re committed to doing even better.

UniSource tracks the average duration of outages attributed to maintenance, equipment failure, weather and other factors with a metric called the System Average Interruption Duration Index, or SAIDI. After posting a SAIDI of 63 minutes in 2016, the company improved its scores in 2018 and 2019 to 47 and 57 minutes, respectively.

And in 2020, despite record heat that placed constant stress on our infrastructure and equipment, we achieved a SAIDI of 43 minutes — that’s three minutes better than our previous record.

About 20 percent of our customers didn’t experience any power outages in 2020. Of those who did, their interruptions averaged 53 minutes – less than one hour out of the 8,760 hours in a year.

Resiliency

UniSource maintains a modern electrical grid that serves more than 8,000 square miles in Mohave and Santa Cruz counties, from the high desert of Kingman to the low desert in Santa Cruz County.

It’s a complex system that requires ongoing maintenance and upgrades.

The level of our commitment to providing customers with safe, reliable, affordable and sustainable energy is reflected in the investments we make so we can continue to provide industry-leading reliability.

In 2020, UniSource invested:

$44million
to upgrade our local energy grid with new and upgraded substations, power lines, poles and other facilities
$10million
in improvements to TEP’s transmission system, which carries energy at higher voltages over longer distances
$1.8million
in new or upgraded generation

Readiness

Our skilled, highly trained workforce ensures that UniSource can maintain safe, reliable and affordable service as we transition to a cleaner, greener grid.

Critical employees receive extensive training before becoming qualified to build and maintain our facilities.

Power production and system control employees are on the job 24/7, monitoring customer usage, weather and the performance of our local energy grid to ensure the delivery of safe, reliable service to customers. Employees also regularly participate in emergency response and continuity training exercises as well as threat recognition training.

Depending on their positions, employees also are required to maintain a variety of certifications for CPR and first aid, commercial driver’s license and other state transportation endorsements, heavy equipment operation, environmental safety and resource conservation.

UniSource fosters an equitable, respectful and inclusive workplace, with programs designed to support the health and wellness of our employees.