EP Electric Updates on Wildfire Danger to Az. Power Lines

El Paso Electric officials say they continue to monitor the Arizona wildfire and the possible impact to their power transmission lines.

Officials with the utility say that the fire closest to their Springerville transmission line is five percent contained. They add that the fire line in the northeast part of the blaze had not progressed and it continues to be approximately 15 miles away from the power line.

According to EPE officials, because conditions in the area are still critical, they continue to prepare for the possibility of an outage of the transmission line, which would limit their ability to bring in power from the Palo Verde nuclear power plant.

In a Friday afternoon release, officials with El Paso Electric say their preparations include:

? Obtaining additional power from other resources; ? Securing additional transmission resources; ? Preparing local generation to operate at full capacity; ? Coordinating with other utilities on actions to take in the event transmission lines are adversely affected; and ? Ensuring that equipment, materials and personnel are available to restore and repair damage to the transmission line and return it to operation on a timely basis.

Look for a full update on this story in our later newscasts and right here on www.kvia.com