Tucson Electric Power officials are monitoring the Wallow Fire for possible damage to power lines leading from the Springerville Generating Station and the San Juan Generating Station in western New Mexico.
While the Springerville plant is not in immediate danger, the fire was about eight miles from the high-voltage lines Tuesday, TEP spokesman Joe Salkowski said.
If the fire gets within about a half-mile of the lines, thick smoke could cause the lines to arc, triggering an automatic shutoff, Salkowski said.
If power from Springerville is disrupted, TEP can rely on generation from the H. Wilson Sundt Generating Station on East Irvington Road power to maintain normal service, he said, adding that the Tucson plant already has been fired up.
"It will, however, leave us more vulnerable to other, unforeseen problems," Salkowski said.
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If the Springerville and San Juan lines are down and a third line fails, TEP could be subject to blackouts, he said. TEP operates the four-unit, coal-fired Springerville plant, which has a total generating capacity of 1,560 megawatts. TEP gets power from Units 1 and 2; Tri-State Generation and Transmission, a consortium of utilities serving parts of Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico and Wyoming gets power from Unit 3; and the Salt River Project gets power from Unit 4.
TEP is allotted half of the power from two of the four generating units of the San Juan power plant, near Farmington, N.M.
