Phoenix, 23 April 2024. Early Tuesday morning, residents of Maricopa found themselves in the dark as a widespread power outage swept through much of the city. The outage, affecting over 33,000 customers as of 8 a.m., predominantly impacted members of Electrical District No. 3 (ED3), as indicated by the power provider’s outage map.
In response to the situation, ED3 issued an alert on its website, citing a transmission outage within its system. The district promptly engaged with transmission providers, including the Western Area Power Authority (WAPA) and Arizona Public Service (APS), to address the issue. APS dispatched a transmission crew to investigate, with an estimated arrival time of at least an hour, while WAPA reported a significant event on their system. ED3 pledged to keep customers informed as new information emerged.
While APS serves only a fraction of Maricopa, approximately 80 of its customers in the city were also affected by the outage.
In light of the power disruption, the Maricopa Police Department mobilized officers to manage traffic flow at key intersections where signals were inactive.
The city announced closures of various facilities, including the Copper Sky Recreation Center and Aquatic Center, Maricopa Library and Cultural Center, and Maricopa Community Center, until power is fully restored.
For those unfamiliar, Electrical District No. 3 (ED3) is a not-for-profit utility district established by the Pinal County Board of Supervisors in 1926. Serving Maricopa and the adjacent unincorporated community of Stanfield, ED3 plays a crucial role in providing essential services to approximately 75,000 residents in Maricopa, situated approximately 35 miles south of downtown Phoenix.
