Emergency program may turn off power during high-risk weather
If your power goes out on high-risk windy days, it may not be because you didn’t pay the bill but because Arizona Public Service shut off your power to prevent a wildfire from a downed powerline.
Sedona customers of Arizona Public Service can check whether their residence falls within the company’s Public Safety Power Shutoff program. Customers outside of Uptown and roughly half of West Sedona may have their power cut on days of extreme wildfire risk.
The program currently includes the Village of Oak Creek along Jacks Canyon Road, all of Little Park, most of the Red Rock Crossing area, the Chapel neighborhood, Airport Mesa, the neighborhoods around Posse Grounds Park and near Andante Drive north of State Route 89A, and neighborhoods south of State Route 89A between Saddlerock Circle and Northview Road. Also included are roughly half of Cottonwood customers — those in neighborhoods nearest to Mingus Mountains — and a majority of Camp Verde and Cornville.
As of April 2025, the Sedona areas included in the PSPS program were 600 to 800 customers near Cathedral Rock, customers along Oak Creek Canyon from Owenby Way to the Oak Creek Canyon fish hatchery, and 27 customers in the area surrounding Enchantment Resort.
How the System Works
The PSPS system, implemented in May 2024, uses automated weather stations, pole-mounted cameras and software to decide when to cut power in specific areas to reduce the risk of fire from downed lines.
On April 22, from 9 a.m. to 6:45 p.m. APS implemented the program for the first time. Power was shut off for about 6,000 customers from Mormon Lake, the east side of Flagstaff up to the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park excluding the railroad and several lodges.
With more zones in the program this year the likelihood of shutting the power off increases, according to APS Northern Division Director Frank Sanderson.
The APS program stems from the liability repercussions of California’s Pacific Gas & Electric pleading guilty in June 2020 to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter from the 2018 Camp Fire — California’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire — which was ignited by a faulty PG&E transmission line.
“Those played a part in this and realizing that we have to make sure our infrastructure is ready for fire season,” Sanderson said. “APS is a steward of the bulk of Arizona’s power system, and to do that, our company also has to be viable.”
Program Growth
PSPS has grown from 13 circuits in 2024 to 65 in 2025 to 124 currently, Sanderson said, adding that the number of customers on a circuit varies with about 40 customers on the circuit near Enchantment Resort, “it can go anywhere between that and having 3,000 people on a circuit.”
“From a Verde Valley perspective, we added about 12 circuits in the area and we will continue to look at it based on what the weather’s like the year before, what the moisture content of the fuels are, how the weather is going to impact that, and we could potentially add more in the future,” Sanderson said.
Notifications
All Sedona customers who are now in the PSPS area have been notified by phone, mail or email over the last several months, Sanderson said.
“Any customer with an APS account will receive an outage alert, and so they’re automatically enrolled in our emergency notifications,” APS spokeswoman Yessica del Rincon said. “The medical care program obviously has different stipulations, and that just provides more advanced notification and touch points, but any customer with contact information on file will get an alert from us about a PSPS.”
For a full map of areas now in the emergency shutoff areas visit aps.com/psps or call APS customer service with questions at 800-253-9405.
