Arizona Public Service President and CEO Ted Geisler outlined APS’s Pledge for Responsible Energy Growth this week as part of broader remarks shared with Arizona community leaders gathered for the 2026 League of Arizona Cities & Towns Conference. The pledge reaffirms APS’s longstanding principles for protecting customers while serving new companies and industries investing in Arizona.
As Arizona continues attracting data centers, manufacturers and other extra-large energy users, the pledge establishes clear standards for how APS will manage that growth. It is intended to ensure new demand strengthens Arizona’s energy system without shifting the associated costs or risks to existing residential and business customers.
“Growth should pay for growth. It’s that simple. When a data center or manufacturer comes to Arizona, they pay the cost of the infrastructure needed to serve them, and those investments help to cover shared grid costs that existing customers would otherwise carry,” said Geisler. “Done right, new growth doesn’t threaten affordability for Arizona families and businesses. It helps protect it.”
The APS Pledge for Responsible Energy Growth is grounded in three foundational principles:
- Safeguarding Reliability: APS will not connect new extra-large customers to the grid faster than it can reliably support. Every extra-large customer agreement is designed with built-in safeguards to protect other customers, including operational and contractual protections that support sufficient, reliable operation and help APS manage the energy grid during periods of peak demand.
- Protecting Customer Rates: New extra-large energy users will pay the costs associated with serving their energy needs and growth, including investments and upgrades in generation, transmission, distribution and the grid. Those costs and financial risks will not be shifted to residential and business customers. Furthermore, as extra-large customers fund upgrades needed to serve their growth, their investments will also help to cover shared infrastructure costs that otherwise would be paid by existing customers.
- Preserving Capacity: Before committing to serve new extra-large customers, APS will preserve enough capacity to meet the needs of Arizona’s current and future homes, small and larger businesses, schools, hospitals and communities. Connecting and serving residential and business customers will remain the company’s top priority.
Together, the three principles provide a framework for evaluating and serving extra-large customers while keeping the needs of existing customers at the center of APS’s planning and decision-making. They also clarify the responsibility of new extra-large energy users to fund the infrastructure and grid improvements required to support their operations.
“These three principles aren’t aspirations. They’re standards we build into our agreements with extra-large customers,” Geisler continued. “Arizonans should be able to welcome the jobs, investment and opportunity coming to our state with confidence that their energy needs come first and their rates are protected. That’s our pledge.”
