AEPCO, MEC Mohave Energy Park Project
BULLHEAD CITY – Mohave Valley Fire Department has announced their unanimous support for Arizona Electric Power Cooperative’s (AEPCO) and Mohave Electric Cooperative’s (MEC) Mohave Energy Park Project.
Board of Directors agree, “Reliable, accessible, and affordable electricity is vital for all our residents first and foremost but is especially important for emergency service providers such as fire departments, law enforcement, hospitals, and government operations.”
To address a growing concern about grid reliability and keeping energy cost low for all members, MEC and its main generation and transmission provider, AEPCO, are planning for quick start, flexible natural gas electric power generation units in Mohave Valley. AEPCO, like MEC, is a not-for-profit cooperative.
“We appreciate AEPCO’s and MEC’s plans for the new local natural gas generating facility that will help support power to our community, as well as costs savings to those residents that reside in areas from Bullhead City to Topock on the west, Hualapai to Burro Creek to the south, and Nelson to the east. To have quick reliable access locally to get service restored in an emergency, is paramount in providing public safety in the event of an outage to the bulk transmission or generation system,” said Ted Martin, Mohave Valley Fire Department Chief.
“A portion of this project’s property taxes will also bring additional funding to local area taxing entities. With the down economic periods over the last 15 years, small rural communities are hit especially hard, and this project would provide a very needed boost to local schools, the county, and the Mohave Valley Fire Department. The fire department has worked very diligently at being fiscally sound, and cognizant of the impact of raising property taxes on its residents, as costs have skyrocketed over the last several years. The much-needed revenue would allow the district to improve services to the community, without having to burden the community with an increased tax rate.”
Tyler Carlson, MEC CEO adds, “We will continue to support our community with the most cost-effective way to provide reliable, affordable power. Thank you to Mohave Valley Fire Department for recognizing the importance of this project. If the new natural gas units were already built and operating, the two-cent per kWh adjustor on member bills wouldn’t be necessary – in fact, the natural gas units would have saved members more than $11 million in 2022.”
A new report by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), categorized Arizona and the Southwest with an “Elevated Risk” status, specifically having “insufficient dispatchable resources,” and at risk of blackouts during summer months. NERC, the organization charged by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) with protecting the reliability of the grid, further projects that slow or stalled development of new generation can lead to capacity issues (blackout outages). NERC has been warning for years that soaring demand for electricity combined with generation shortfalls put reliable energy in jeopardy, and the latest 2024 Reliability Assessment shows this threat has worsened. MEC and AEPCO are proactively taking action to avoid these circumstances by planning flexible, natural gas units and future solar with battery storage. This Energy Park would go a long way in preventing issues of short falls and blackouts and would give our members reliability in their electricity provider.
