Dedicated to Value
You count on our power and you can count on our people.
It’s a responsibility we never take lightly.
We’ve powered our community for more than 130 years, providing the safe, reliable and affordable service you depend on for your modern life. Our commitment to value has remained steady over all those years.
Steady, Affordable Rates
In fact, our service has remained remarkably affordable, costing less on an inflation-adjusted basis than it did 25 years ago.
TEP’s residential electric rates have increased 1.9 percent per year, on average, over the past 25 years. The average annual inflation rate over that time was 2.5 percent. So while our rates are higher than they used to be, they haven’t risen as much as other prices.
Here’s how we’re creating more value for you:
- Offering energy-saving programs to help customers save energy and reduce their bills.
- Modernizing and investing in our electrical systems to increase reliability, ranking in the top tier of all utilities for the 11th year in a row. Over the last five years (2019-2023), TEP invested more than $2 billion to upgrade our energy systems to reliably serve our growing community’s expanding energy needs.
- Working to create a future that strengthens the community where we work and live.
- Partnering with our customers to work toward a clean energy future free of carbon emissions. We’ve already achieved a 37 percent reduction in annual CO2 emissions from TEP’s generating resources since 2019, mainly through the retirement of coal-fired power plants.
- Using technology to make your life easier and to provide convenient, self-serve options to manage your account, from enrolling in our billing programs to reporting an outage or viewing detailed information on your energy usage.
By the Numbers
Energy Savings
You have the power to start saving today and for years to come with some low-cost measures and simple lifestyle modifications.
From a handy checklist to room-by-room videos and easy tips, we’re here for you. We also offer several product and service rebates, to help make it more affordable to improve your home’s efficiency.
Read our energy savings news stories
And sign up for our monthly newsletter, which offers timely tips on seasonal energy saving strategies.
Reliability
When you turn on that light switch, you probably don’t think about the work going on the other side of that switch to make sure you have safe, reliable service. And that’s as it should be: That’s our job.
We’re investing in our equipment and systems for better reliability to keep your power flowing throughout the year, even through the sweltering summer and with increasingly severe monsoon storms.
We’re proud of our 99.9 percent service reliability. Our goal is not just to have fewer outages – it’s also to get you back in service faster when an outage does occur. Here's how:
We’re installing stronger, more storm-resistant poles in our replacement program.
Our employees are always looking for new technologies and processes that can help us serve our customers and communities more efficiently, such as a new tool that helped speed restoration over our summer storm season.
We have a thorough maintenance program to inspect overhead lines, trim nearby vegetation and ensure our equipment resiliency.
We've largely completed a multi-year project to install advanced meters, which communicate usage data automatically, allowing more efficient, environmentally friendly operations. Additionally, since the meters notify TEP of outages and fluctuations in voltage, this improves service restoration times and assists with preventive maintenance.
We’re working to modernize a key transmission line serving our central city. It will include a new higher-voltage transmission line, a new substation and other upgrades to support our community’s growth, facilitate additional use of clean energy resources and maintain reliability during extreme weather conditions.
Community Service
As a company built around a grid that connects us all, Tucson Electric Power has a unique opportunity to support a stronger, more inclusive, more vibrant community.
Our focus is broader than keeping the lights on. Through financial, in-kind and volunteer contributions, we work to improve the quality of life in our community so everyone can thrive. Our contributions, funded with company resources, not with customers’ rates, help our most vulnerable neighbors, protect the environment and invest in the future through education.
Here are some of the ways we’re contributing to a brighter future:
- In 2023, we supported 216 charities with $1.5 million in donations.
- We're passionate about powering education and supporting the next generation. That's why we invest in our youth by matching teachers with summer jobs or externships that provide industry experience they can take back to the classroom. We support back to school events, teach students about electrical safety and energy concepts, and offer internships that provide a path from school to jobs. Our CEO even started her career at TEP as an intern.
- Each year, we sponsor Winterhaven, an opportunity to support a beloved, longstanding tradition that captures the magic of the holiday season.
- Our customers have contributed nearly $2 million dollars since 2011 to help neighbors in need pay their utility bills, through our Help with Emergency Energy Relief Operation (HEERO) program.
A Net Zero Future
Like you, we love our infinite skies, our stunning sunsets and the active lifestyle connected to our unique desert environment. That’s why we’re passionate about our commitment to environmental sustainability.
We’re working to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 while keeping energy affordable and reliable.
This aspirational goal extends our ongoing efforts to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, from retiring our coal plants in the coming years to bringing on more clean energy and battery storage projects. It also reflects our confidence that advancements in technologies such as long-duration storage, carbon capture and sequestration, hydrogen generation and small modular reactors will emerge as cost effective options.
In 2021, we more than doubled our total renewable energy portfolio to more than 1,000 megawatts (MW) – and we’ve been on a roll ever since.
In 2022, we built a new 12.5 MW solar array designed to support customers who want to go solar through our community solar programs. In 2023, we announced plans for a new 200-MW battery energy storage system. And in 2024, we announced plans for Winchester Solar, a new 80 MW solar and 80 MW energy storage system in Cochise County, and another 200-MW storage system on the southeast side.
Investments in these energy storage systems helps solar power generation go further. We're also exploring options to invest in fast-ramping natural gas generators and other facilities needed to support new renewable resources.
By 2038 we expect solar and wind will make up 54 percent of our energy mix.
Learn how you can partner with us to help us achieve our clean energy goals. You can also shop online through our online TEP Marketplace for energy-saving products at competitive prices that aren’t just good for your wallet. They’re good for the environment.
Convenience and Flexibility
Not all of our upgrades are in wires and substations. Some of our updates are ensuring you have the tools you need to easily get the information you need to manage your energy use and your account.
While TEP provides the same safe, reliable service for everyone, we also offer a variety of programs, account services and pricing plans that can be combined and customized to fit your budget and your lifestyle.
Maybe you want to pay the same amount every month, all year-round. Maybe you want to change your pricing plan to shift energy and save money. Maybe you want to explore our rebates or find out if an electric vehicle or rooftop solar might be a good fit. You can learn all about our tools and offerings on our website at TEP for Me.
We’ve also been modernizing our call center phone system to offer more user-friendly features and services to serve you better. Among the changes, customers can:
- Chat with us from the “Contact Us” page at tep.com
- Request a payment extension
- Receive text messages with updates on power outages, in addition to information shared on our outage map.
- Select Spanish as their preferred language for automated prompts and responses
These are some of the ways we’re working to provide value every day. If you have comments or suggestions please contact us and we’ll work to answer your questions.