Tucson Opinion: TEP should underground proposed Kino to DeMoss-Petrie power lines

A company we call Tucson Electric Power is proposing to boost electricity delivery by constructing unusually high 75- to 100-foot poles and transmission lines all along Kino Boulevard through the heart of Tucson. TEP has proposed the project to address increased energy usage and the University of Arizona’s climate-change goals.

The company clearly does care about the delivery of electricity. I also grant that TEP cares about world concerns regarding the impact of electricity on climate change.

But, the “Tucson” part of Tucson Electric Power’s name seems to have little meaning to the company.

While additional electricity is needed, TEP has rejected the alternative of installing the project underground instead of above ground. Their primary reason, as TEP’s own representative recently wrote, is that “Many in our community cannot afford to pay much higher electric rates to cover the steep cost of underground installation.”

In fact, the cost of undergrounding these extra-tall poles and lines would not require anything close to a steep rate increase. Last year, TEP felt fine about requesting a rate increase of about 8%, which the Arizona Corporation Commission lowered to 6.8%.

According to my calculations based on TEP’s estimate of the cost difference between underground and overhead ($58.4 million), the ACC’s amortization rate (1.69% over 59 years), and the yearly interest on the unpaid debt at 1.5% interest (the same interest rate as for TEP’s last major loan, for $300 million), the rate increase needed to pay the added cost of undergrounding the extra-tall poles and lines would amount to a minuscule 1/50th of this 6.8% rate increase that TEP happily accepted a year ago, about 14 cents per month for an average customer, less than $2 per year. Or, TEP could easily absorb such a cost.

Either way, undergrounding the project would then enable TEP to support a number of goals of great importance to Tucson and its citizens, about whom the company now seems to care little about.

First, TEP would then be able to follow rather than violate specific mandates contained in a wide array of ordinances, codes and area plans duly enacted by the City of Tucson over many years that call for undergrounding new utilities in the areas the routes for the proposed project are located.

Second, TEP could then avoid inflicting serious injury upon numerous historic neighborhoods designated as National or City Historic Districts, as well as a swath of sensitive receptors such as schools and child care centers, that lie along each of the above-ground routes.

Third, TEP would avoid causing potentially tens of millions of dollars in reduced value to the properties of thousands of Tucsonans of all income levels, both homeowners and businesses, along the routes. TEP cannot deny this loss might well occur from such tall overhead poles and lines.

Fourth, by undergrounding, TEP would then be acting in a manner that respects rather than undermines Tucson’s publicly stated view about “the importance of well-maintained and attractive roadways and gateways in establishing an initial impression for visitors and generating pride among residents.” This is also key to the city’s economic development, affecting all Tucsonans and TEP itself.

Fifth, TEP would then also enable Tucson avert a potential “lose-lose” outcome, whereby the project is constructed above ground and the cumulative cost paid by many of our citizens in property value damage ends ups being as high as the price tag to underground the project in the first place.

All five of these goals of Tucson and its citizens are both proper and important. Each can be achieved by undergrounding this project without any change in rates or, at most, a tiny rate increase in the pennies.

TEP wants to be known as not just “Electric Company,” but as Tucson Electric Company. I ask it to live up to that name.