How APS decides to turn off power when a wildfire is burning nearby

While the Pocket Fire burned near Sedona and Flagstaff earlier this summer and conditions remained hot and dry — Arizona Public Service, the state’s largest power utility, made an announcement: They would shut down power to about 8,000 customers to mitigate wildfire risk near the Grand Canyon and Flagstaff.

It was part of APS’s Public Safety Power Shutoff program, or PSPS, which the utility adopted in 2024 but never had to put into use until April of this year.

And according to Scott Bordenkircher it’s a last resort kind of option for them. Bordenkircher is director of forestry and fire mitigation at APS. The Show spoke with him more about it.

Full conversation

SCOTT BORDENKIRCHER: It’s the tool when conditions are so bad in an area that we just don’t believe that all of the other risk mitigation things that we’ve done, there’s a chance that they still might not be enough.

And so we look at specific areas where those environmental conditions — and those are really, really high fire risk conditions. So, we’re talking lots of dry fuels, very low relative humidities, wind is certainly a part of that. We look at those factors in that area, and we have to make the determination of, you know what, in this instance — and we hopefully do it for as short a time as we possibly can — but our best answer here is really to turn off power proactively in case our equipment gets damaged.

And so that’s when we exercise that tool. It’s in those very, very extreme conditions where we still believe that the risk to our customers and, frankly, the communities we ourselves live in is just so high that we don’t want to take that chance.

LAUREN GILGER: Talk about this most recent decision just in late June here to shut off power for many people in Northern Arizona near Grand Canyon, near Flagstaff. What were the conditions like? What was that decision-making process like?

SCOTT BORDENKIRCHER: So, that decision-making process started about five days before the event itself. We started to see — or I should say our meteorologists started to see — really kind of these conditions building from the west, where we were having this very, very strong high-pressure zone.

Add that to the fact that in that part of the state, we’d already had record lows in terms of any form of precipitation. So, we didn’t have the snow, we didn’t have the rain. What we had instead was very, very dry forests, very, very dry brush and other fuels that if a spark started somewhere in that area, there was a very, very high risk of a catastrophic result.

And so at the point where we start to look at four days out, we started notifying our customers. We continue to monitor then all the way through that event leading up to it to really try and pinpoint, “Hey, is the weather pattern moving, are circumstances changing, did it maybe get a little more moist in the evening?”

LAUREN GILGER: Right, right. So, not a decision, it sounds like, you take lightly. What was the reaction like from customers? As you said, this wasn’t the very first time you’ve had to do this, but this year is the first time you’ve implemented this program and turned off power for folks during wildfire season.

And that comes with risks, right? For people who maybe won’t have air conditioning, might not be able to live in the way that they’re used to. Were folks on board?

SCOTT BORDENKIRCHER: So it was a mix, as I think any of us would expect. So for any of us who’ve gotten used to having power all the time, it certainly is an inconvenience at the least. And for those folks that you mentioned that are particularly vulnerable — whether it’s our customers on medical equipment or highly susceptible to higher temperatures — for them, it goes beyond inconvenience.

We worked with county emergency managers and the Red Cross so that we’re able to allow them enough notice to open shelters and bring resources to folks that maybe need a little extra assistance during that time. That was very helpful, I think, overall, was very much appreciated.

In terms of public sentiment, I think there were a good number of folks up in that area who have either lived through wildfires, either in their past or their family’s past — because this is definitely a national problem — that I think they understood the need.

LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. So those power shutoffs, that’s just one of the things that you do at APS, and probably at other utilities, to sort of try to monitor, try to spot wildfires. Talk a little bit about some of these other efforts. I’m not sure folks are aware of them, but I mean, you have like mountain top AI cameras, right? Like, weather stations. You even wrap power poles in fire-resistant mesh in places?

SCOTT BORDENKIRCHER: We do indeed. So, our fire mitigation program probably within the last 11, 12 years, we’ve really had a specific focus on fire mitigation as weather’s become drier and our forest health has been declining. But it’s a very broad-based program, and it really starts with the work we do just to manage vegetation in the first place. So, clearing our rights-of-way, ensuring that we have trees and brush away from our power lines, that’s really kind of that ground-level, foundational perspective.

But then we do a lot of investing in terms of grid hardening. So that gets into the idea of wrapping those power poles so they don’t burn when other fires come up to them. It includes technologies that we put in place. You mentioned weather stations. Weather stations have been very key, and they were very key, frankly, during the PSPS call that weekend, because that’s what we were using to monitor real-time conditions on the ground.

Artificial intelligence fire-sensing cameras, those are a really big effort for us and something that we believe very highly in, because that’s a piece of equipment that doesn’t just tell us that there’s been a fire started somewhere, but it tells first responders directly. And it goes directly to dispatch centers so they can get people out to that fire to fight it quicker.

And then we’ve changed our operations over the past decade in terms of, as risk has grown, we take a look at work differently. There’s work that we don’t do out in the field, for instance, during red flag conditions. And so, again, all of that comes together to try and really approach this problem the most broadly and holistically that we can.

LAUREN GILGER: So, I mean, obviously, there’s a risk of litigation, right, for utility companies like APS, which you mentioned. But I wonder also how you view the role of utilities going forward, the responsibility of utilities going forward, as wildfire season is now basically year-round.

Last year at the state Legislature, there was some debate about this, and eventually the lawmakers did pass a new law that reduces some liability for utility companies like APS, but also still allows for people to sue if you don’t follow your own kind of wildfire plan. Where do you see the balance here?

SCOTT BORDENKIRCHER: First and foremost for us, this has always been about public safety. Again, I mentioned earlier that these are the same communities that we live in. We’re not a company based in some other place looking at Northern Arizona and hoping that risk just kind of works itself out. For us, the investment we made, the programs we put in place, those all started long before even the first lawsuit in another state was enacted or happened.

While utilities account for, especially in Arizona, less than 2%, 1% of all wildfires — so the bulk is caused by lightning strikes and, unfortunately, bad human behavior — that 1% is still really important to us to make sure that we aren’t contributing to that problem.

And we have lines that obviously connect and run to all of our communities through those forested areas, through those areas that are experiencing that drought and those issues. And so, again, we just believe that it is absolutely our responsibility to do our part to help provide for wildfire safety, for wildfire mitigation.

LAUREN GILGER: OK, we’ll leave it there. Scott Bordenkircher, director of forestry and fire mitigation at APS, joining us. Scott, thank you for coming on The Show. I appreciate it.

SCOTT BORDENKIRCHER: Thank you, Lauren.

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