Executive Director of Transmission & System Operations
As executive director of transmission and system operations, Shane Sanders manages a team that works around the clock to ensure system reliability. His team includes transmission planning engineers, substation and transmission engineering, transmission operations and maintenance, and engineering project support. The group monitors and controls a large portion of the 866 miles of transmission lines and associated substations as well as the 24/7 system control center, which monitors more than 1,400 MW of system peak load and more than 1,200 MW of generation. His technical services team provides IT support, as well as maintaining a SCADA system that provides refreshed system data every 2 to 4 seconds and real-time operations control.
Shane began working for Arizona G&T Cooperatives in 1984 at Apache Generating Station. He transferred to the Benson headquarters as a power systems controller in 1991 and moved to power trading in 1999. In 2004, Shane became systems control manager. In 2007, he was promoted to manager of system operations, where his responsibilities included the pre-schedule and transmission billing departments. In 2011, another promotion made him director of system operations, and he became executive director of system operations in 2017. The role expanded to include transmission in 2022 when he was promoted to executive director of transmission and system operations.