.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........
PHOENIX — A widespread electrical grid failure like the one that crippled Texas and left millions without power last week would be unlikely to occur in Arizona, even with a prolonged period of exceptionally hot weather, grid experts and utility officials say.
Unlike Texas utilities that have largely been walled off from the national electrical grid, Arizona power providers face stricter reliability standards and can import power from out of state if there isn’t enough locally, they said.
“The biggest difference between Texas and any other state in America … is we are all interconnected and Texas is not,” said Vijay Vittal, a Regents professor specializing in power systems engineering at Arizona State University. “So they can rely on no support from any of their neighbors.”