Arizona utility company to use battery backups for small town’s power

PHOENIX — A small Arizona town is getting some battery help for its summer power backup.

Arizona Public Service said construction of the two battery backups for Punkin Center will begin in the fall.

The utility said getting batteries for the community’s power needs were cheaper than rebuilding 20 miles of power poles and lines.

Punkin Center is an unincorporated community 53 miles northeast of Phoenix, in Gila County. It’s on State Route 188, in the Tonto National Forest; among the town’s businesses are a café, a storage center and boat/RV storage facility.

The town is part of Tonto Basin. About 600 people live there.

@apsFYI to use 4-hour #energystorage in place of traditional infrastructure on the distribution grid: https://t.co/Znu8rccGmH #ESNA2017 pic.twitter.com/JaJKHAfH1O

— AES Energy Storage (@aes_es) August 10, 2017

According to an APS spokeswoman, the batteries will be needed at least 20 days of every year. Those will mostly be in late summer, during afternoons and early evenings.

An official for AES Energy Storage, which is supplying the storage, wrote in a blog post that smaller-scale projects such as this one was a “harbinger of things to come.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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