Trico is growing, along with many of the communities we serve. To keep up with that growth and maintain an excellent standard of reliability, we are investing in the facilities that deliver power to our Members’ homes and businesses.
I am happy to share with the membership that Trico will be investing almost $70,000,000 over the next four years to continue improving our electric infrastructure.
Our recently approved four-year construction work plan includes:
- Connecting 4,120 new homes and businesses.
- Increasing service capacity to many existing Members.
- Increasing the capacity of 49 miles of existing overhead and underground distribution lines.
- Constructing almost 34 miles of new lines between substations (this allows us to route power from different directions to reduce and limit outages).
- Replacing 440 older distribution poles.
- Replacing almost 15 miles of aging underground conductor.
- Installing one new substation delivery point (Adonis Substation, which will be north of Tangerine Road and east of I-10 in Marana) and rebuilding/upgrading two existing substations (Green Valley Substation and Marana Substation)
- Rebuilding 69 kV transmission lines.
Compared to the more than 900 electric cooperatives across the United States, we are proud that Trico is in the top 25% for offering strong reliable service. To maintain our high standard we make prudent, planned investments that benefit Members now and in the future.
To explain, in the electric distribution business, where many miles of poles, lines, and facilities are required, a cooperative like Trico must decide, do we pay now or do we pay later? It can be tempting to neglect or skimp on maintaining our lines and/or upgrading our system. That would save on short-term costs, but reliability would suffer. Members would have to hold their breath during bad weather or high winds, and costly repairs would be unplanned and likely more expensive when needed.
Don’t get me wrong, we know costs are important, and we work hard to keep down our costs and the amount of our monthly bills. The way to do that over the long run is with a steady and continuous preventative maintenance and investment approach where we annually address the needs of our system and prepare for projected growth.
Investing $70,000,000 over the next four years is an investment in our communities and a significant commitment to providing you the cost-effective energy you need, when you need it.
