Desert Southwest Region

Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, the City of Boulder City, Nev., and the Fort Mohave Indian Tribe in California are a few of the customers that depend on the reliable hydroelectric power of the Desert Southwest Region. These customers count on the Region's competitively priced resources to meet the electrical needs of residents, businesses and industries in the West.

FY 2006 Profile Capacity:         2,928 MW*  Energy sales:   9,600, 270 MWh Powerplants:  4  Transmission (in circuit miles): 2,666  Substations: 59  * Includes the Boulder Canyon,   Central Arizona and Parker-Davis projects

The Desert Southwest Region is one of four regions within Western Area Power Administration, a Federal power marketing agency. Western sells wholesale power and delivers bulk wholesale transmission to local utilities. Your electric company gets the power it delivers to consumers from a variety of sources, including wholesale power providers such as Western, purchases and exchanges from neighboring utilities and its own generation. Employees work hard to keep bulk power moving through the interconnected transmission system so that electricity reaches your home or business.

Delivering power
The Desert Southwest Region carries out Western's mission to customers in Arizona, southern California and southern Nevada. Within vast open spaces and an arid mountain and desert climate, we sell about 9 billion kilowatthours of Federal hydroelectric power to cities and towns, rural electric cooperatives, Federal and state agencies and irrigation districts. This is enough energy to provide electric service for a year to more than two million homes.

The Region sells and delivers power from the Boulder Canyon and Parker-Davis projects, which are operated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Lower Colorado Region. The projects include powerplants at Hoover, Davis and Parker dams. We also transmit power over the Pacific Northwest-Southwest Intertie. We deliver this energy through 59 substations and more than 2,600 miles of Federal transmission lines. We also sell the excess generation of the Central Arizona Project's Navajo coal-fired plant in Page, Ariz., and surplus CAP transmission.

Providing services
To keep the power flowing through the system for customers, we rely on maintenance crews at six duty stations throughout our service area. We also operate an extensive communications system using microwaves and fiber optics to coordinate the regional power system. Using this vital system, we can transmit everything from powerplant control to voice and corporate data communication.

Even in the midst of record heat waves and torrential flash flooding, we continue to meet the demand for electricity. We accomplish this by ensuring environmental protection; establishing system security and employee safety; operating and maintaining the transmission systems; scheduling and routing power; administering contracts and setting rates; and analyzing hydroelectric resources. Besides our Regional office in Phoenix, we work from five duty locations: Coolidge, Flagstaff, Page and Yuma, Ariz.; and Boulder City, Nev.

In the Desert Southwest Region, we are committed to serving our customers in many diverse ways. For example, our field crews help customers quickly restore service after storms or other major disturbances. We also encourage customers to comment on how we should operate our system in the future. In addition, we provide technical assistance through our Energy Services program. Finally, we help customers plan for future power needs.

Eyeing the future
As the electric utility industry continues to undergo restructuring and increased competition, we are building upon existing products and services to meet customer needs. To continue to operate efficiently in this dynamic marketplace, our Region remains committed, innovative, flexible and resourceful while continuing to provide exceptional customer service.

Part of operating efficiently involves seeking ways to address the growing need for more power in the Southwest. While Western has finite resources, we are attempting to assist our customers in finding new energy resources. Our Region will continue to foster the efficient, equitable and reliable use of existing and future transmission facilities by participating in regional transmission associations and reliability organizations, including the Western Electricity Coordinating Council. Similarly, Western and other transmission providers will continue to help develop the Region's independent system operator.

As we work amid the unprecedented change in the industry, we recognize the importance of strong customer relations and flexible, superior service. We look forward to building upon our existing relationships and creating new ones.