VIDEO: A state regulatory panel questioned Arizona Public Service executives about an explosion last week that injured more than a half-dozen firefighters.
APS says it received an alarm about its two-megawatt battery next to its McMicken Energy Storage facility near Grand Avenue and Deer Valley Road around 5 p.m. Friday. Technicians and firefighters responded, and roughly three hours later there was an explosion that injured eight firefighters.
In front of the members of the corporation commission, which has oversight over the utility, officials said there had been previous issues with similar technology that had since been corrected. "We want to be transparent in the sense that we have had battery challenges in 2012," vice president Jacob Tetlow said, referring to a fire in Flagstaff that year.