Electric system expansion in the Pacific Southwest

THE PACIFIC SOUTHWEST area includes all of the interconnected electric systems in Arizona, California, and southern Nevada. The area, 380,000 square miles, is 12.5 per cent of the land area, contains 7.7 per cent of the estimated population, and uses 10 per cent of the energy generated by central stations in the United States. The area is generally arid and because of uninhabited mountain and desert areas, the electrical service areas of the three states cover less than one-fifth of the land area.