Before we turn the page on another year, it’s worth reviewing how much we accomplished in 2024.
From high reliability to lower summer rates, new energy storage solutions and deeper partnerships with our customers, our achievements this year have left us well-positioned for a strong start in 2025.
Here’s a quick snapshot of the highlights:
January: Partnering to Cut Carbon
From 2011-2023, our customers partnered with us to achieve cumulative savings of more than 22.7 million tons of CO2 emissions by participating in our energy efficiency programs. Energy efficiency doesn’t just reduce costs at home; it also supports cleaner air and reduces the need for new energy resources as we work toward our aspirational goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
February: New All-Source Request for Proposals for Additional Energy Resources
Tucson Electric Power renewed its search for the most cost-effective resources to satisfy the growing energy needs our community.
Our latest all-source request for proposals targeted new generation and energy storage resources to cost-effectively serve customers’ increasing energy needs over the next 15 years. We’re particularly interested in resources that we can count on to be available during periods of peak energy demand, including the late afternoon and early evening hours of summer.
March: Making the Grade in Helping Schools
Students and educators at 10 local schools are enjoying clearer air and more comfortable classrooms, thanks to new heating and cooling systems provided by TEP. The upgrades were provided at no cost through our customer-funded Commercial Schools Program, creating energy cost savings for selected schools as well as for our entire community.
Eight of the schools received new heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems units that will save a combined 1-million-kilowatt hours per year. Advanced Rooftop Controls were installed at the other two schools.
We also were pleased to participate in a federal grant to secure 10 new electric school buses. We worked closely with district officials for more than a year, providing technical assistance and other support for its successful application for a grant to help schools take part in a cleaner energy future.
April: Honoring Teachers
We were proud to close out the school year by recognizing the longest serving teacher participating in our program to educate students about energy conservation and sustainability.
Coronado K-8 School teacher Robin Resley has championed energy conservation since 2013. She brought TEP’s Bright Students program to her students 11 times over the years, teaching more than 1,500 students about the importance of conserving energy and how to take practical steps to be energy efficient.
We also welcomed five local teachers to temporary summer jobs at TEP, where they gained practical industry experience to take back to their students. The placements were made through the Teachers in Industry program, a partnership between the University of Arizona College of Education and Tucson Values Teachers, a local charity. TEP has participated in the program since its inception in 2010.
May: Lower Energy Costs Lead to Savings for TEP Customers
TEP customers enjoyed lower energy costs this summer thanks to surcharge updates that took effect just in time for rising temperatures. Average summer bills for residential customers in June and July were expected to be further reduced by a temporary adjustment to the Demand Side Management (DSM) surcharge.
June: Crews Help Light the Navajo Nation
Two four-man crews from TEP volunteered to set miles of poles and string conductors to support Light Up Navajo, an ongoing effort to connect isolated rural households to the electric grid.
Apprentice Robert Montgomery didn’t hesitate to sign up for the volunteer slots, which filled almost immediately. “When I heard about it, I couldn’t believe there were people in the U.S. still living without power, so I wanted to help. We were helping a lot of elderly residents and a family with children. They couldn’t stop smiling and that was a really good feeling.”
The roughly 14,000 homes on the Navajo Nation without power make up 75 percent of all households in the U.S. that lack electric service. About 700 homes have received electricity as a result of the initiative, which launched in 2019 and is organized jointly by the American Public Power Association and the National Tribal Utility Authority.
July: 11 Years of Top-Tier Reliability
We entered summer storm season with an 11-year record of providing top-tier service to customers, making us one of the most reliable electric service providers in the country.
Since 2012, we have consistently achieved top-quartile reliability scores when compared to other energy providers, based on the System Average Interruption Duration Index. This metric represents the average length of time a customer is without service due to weather, maintenance, equipment failure and other factors.
The average TEP customer was without service for about 62 minutes in 2022 based on that year’s national scorecard. That compared to a nationwide average above 100 minutes, placing us well within the first quartile of results gathered by the Edison Electrical Institute.
August: TEP Plans New Battery System to Support Reliability
We announced a second large battery system in southeast Tucson to deliver more power from the sun, including later in the day when solar panels produce less solar energy.
TEP’s 200-megawatt (MW) Roadrunner Reserve II system will store 800 megawatt hours of energy, enough to serve approximately 42,000 homes for four hours when deploying at full capacity. The system is scheduled to begin operation in early 2026, a year after the similarly sized Roadrunner Reserve energy storage system begins operating on the same site.
The side-by-side systems will be the largest energy storage resources in TEP’s portfolio and among the largest in Arizona. TEP expects to charge both grid-connected batteries in the morning and early afternoon, when solar resources produce the most energy. Stored energy will be delivered later in the day when energy use typically is at its highest.
Meanwhile, we also announced we’re preparing for construction of the Wilmot Energy Center II, which will include a 100 MW solar array and a 400 megawatt-hour lithium-ion battery energy storage system. The additions will double the generating capacity and more than quadruple the storage capacity on the site, located south of the Tucson International Airport near South Wilmot and East Sahuarita Road.
In all, TEP expects to expand our energy storage capacity from about 50 MW today to more than 1,300 MW by 2038. These resources will play a key role in meeting our aspirational goal of achieving zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
September: Net Zero Hero Award Recipients Support a Cleaner Energy Future
TEP is working to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 while keeping energy affordable and reliable. But we can’t do it alone: we need our customers to help us get there, by partnering with us to save energy and shift usage to periods when we have more wind and solar power available.
We recognize our leading partners in these efforts annually with Net Zero Hero awards, previously known as our Go Green awards. We selected winners from nominations we received from our employees and the community for local businesses, nonprofit groups, and other entities that champion sustainability, embrace innovation and make thoughtful choices about the environment.
October: Growth in Energy Demand Expected to Accelerate
Local energy demand is expected to increase significantly over the next decade, compelling us to develop additional resources to keep energy reliable and affordable.
We shared this revised outlook in the fall, as utilities nationwide made similar adjustments, reflecting increasing interest from data center developers and others proposing projects with significant energy needs. Although TEP’s most recent Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) anticipated annual growth of about 1 percent, we’ve since engaged in preliminary discussions of potential projects that could boost local energy demand by more than 50 percent over the next decade. Meeting these unprecedented needs will require accelerating the buildout anticipated by our last IRP in order to maintain a safe, reliable and resilient grid.
November: Three Ways TEP Customers Supported our Local Energy Grid in Record Heat
As Tucson boiled through the third hottest summer on record, thousands of local residents participated in a pilot program that rewards customers for turning up the thermostat a few degrees when it matters most.
Thanks to 6,900 customers who participated in nine events over the summer, we were able to collectively save enough energy to power the equivalent of roughly 2,300 homes. That’s important since demand for electricity can strain the grid when summer temperatures climb.
The TEP Smart Rewards program demonstrated that smart thermostats can be a powerful tool for energy management and environmental sustainability. Customers always retain control over their thermostat and may opt out of an event at any time by simply adjusting their thermostats.
December: Giving Back
We haven’t tied a bow on the year just yet, but we’ve so far donated more than $1.5 million to more than 100 nonprofit groups focusing on community vitality, K-12 education, environmental stewardship, and social justice issues.
Our philanthropic efforts also included an additional focus on housing stability to help prevent homelessness. All donations come from company resources and are not recovered through customers’ rates.
Learn more and watch our crews light Winterhaven in support of our community’s annual holiday tradition.
