Assertion Supported AI assessment confidence: 90% certainty 4/5 debate potential 1/5

Carnes: Arizona Public Service's virtual power plant nears 200 megawatt capacity

Carrie Carnes · Frontier Forum: Why utilities should go big on VPPs · Dec 2, 2024 · at 7:50

Carrie Carnes, speaking on behalf of Arizona Public Service (APS), details the current capacity and resource breakdown of the utility's virtual power plant portfolio.

0:00 / 0:12exact quote · 12.9s

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“So today we're nearing 200 megawatts in our virtual power plant. The bulk of that, as Seth said, is thermostats. By far this summer we achieved 163 megawatts with the thermostats.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

Arizona Public Service's virtual power plant is nearing 200 megawatts of total capacity, with 163 megawatts achieved from smart thermostats during the summer.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

Both components of the claim are confirmed by official filings and disclosures from late 2024. First, Arizona Public Service (APS) official publications and industry reports from late 2024 confirmed that its aggregated virtual power plant (combining residential smart thermostats, battery storage, and commercial demand response) was nearing 200 MW (~190–200 MW). Second, regulatory filings and DSM proceedings before the Arizona Corporation Commission (alongside Pinnacle West's Q3 2024 disclosures) verified that APS's Cool Rewards smart thermostat program enrolled over 95,000 thermostats and achieved peak event load reductions of approximately 160–163 MW during summer 2024.

APS official VPP disclosures and Latitude Media reporting in late 2024 confirmed aggregate VPP capacity was nearing 200 MW (~190 MW to nearly 200 MW).
Pinnacle West's Q3 2024 Form 10-Q (November 6, 2024) reported Cool Rewards enrolled over 95,000 smart thermostats conserving approximately 160 MW of peak energy.
Arizona Corporation Commission DSM proceedings documented summer 2024 smart thermostat peak event dispatch measurements in the 160–163 MW range.

Checked against

[1] aps.com [2] apple.com [3] aps.com [4] recurve.com [5] flexload.org [6] pinnaclewest.com [7] cloudfront.net [8] aps.com

"Arizona Public Service" "200 MW" OR "200 megawatts" VPP OR "virtual power plant" "Cool Rewards" "Kerri Carnes" OR "Carrie Carnes" APS "Demand Side Management" OR "Cool Rewards" OR "VPP" "APS Cool Rewards" "163 MW" OR "160 MW" OR "163" OR "164"

assessed as of 2026-09-02

This assessment is an AI reading of a public statement, made against the cited references with the confidence shown. It can be wrong. The quote, the tape and the references are all on this page; if something is off, use report an error below. full disclaimer →

Mentioned

Arizona Public Service Carrie Carnes virtual power plants

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Assertion Not checkable as stated

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