Find out the latest on Tucson Electric Power Co.’s plan to upgrade major transmission lines through midtown at an open house at the end of March.
The open house will be held at 6 p.m. March 28 at the Doubletree Hotel-Reid Park, 445 S. Alvernon Way.
TEP’s Midtown Reliability Project would run high-voltage transmission lines from a substation at South Kino Parkway and East 36th Street, north past the University of Arizona campus to a substation on the north side of Banner-University Medical Center and then to a substation off West Grant Road east of Interstate 10.
TEP says the project is needed to meet growing peak demand needs in the midtown area including the UA.
But the exact route for the new line and substation location are as yet undetermined, as proposed routes narrowed down under an initial proposal were dropped amid vehement opposition from the city of Tucson and neighborhood leaders.
Leaders of neighborhoods along the route say the installation of new lines and power poles up to 110 feet tall, in some cases running through or astride some historic neighborhoods, would create visual blight and cut property values.
City officials say the plan would violate city ordinances banning new, overhead transmission lines on designated “scenic” and “gateway” corridors including North Campbell.
The city and neighborhood activists want TEP to pay to install the transmission lines underground in sensitive areas, but the utility says burying such high-voltage lines is too costly — 10 or more times the cost of overhead lines — and it wouldn’t be fair to ratepayers to include the cost in electric rates.
Tucson city voters last May rejected a ballot proposition to adopt a new TEP city franchise agreement including a fee to fund the underground installation of the transmission line, then known as the Kino to DeMoss Petrie Transmission Project.
That sent TEP back to the drawing board with new proposed routes for the transmission lines.
TEP said that based on input from midtown residents and other stakeholders, including two open houses held since November, it has identified 10 draft alternative routes for the new overhead transmission line that remain under consideration for inclusion in its state application for a certificate of environmental compatibility.
For more information including maps and the latest project information, go to tep.com/midtown-reliability-project.
At a Jan. 24, 2023 Tucson City Council meeting, Tucson Electric Power executive Erik Bakken explained the proposed new franchise agreement, allowing the utility to bury power lines in exchange for customers within city limits paying more on their electric bills.
