New Pinnacle West Chairman Outlines Fundamental Strategies for Company’s Future Success

Pinnacle West Capital Corp. (NYSE: PNW) is well-positioned to weather the current economic storm and build upon the Company’s long, successful legacy in Arizona, Chairman and CEO Don Brandt told shareholders at the Company’s Annual Meeting held today in Phoenix.

Presiding over his first Annual Meeting as Chairman after being promoted in late April, Brandt outlined several key strategies to ensure the Company continues to add value to its shareholders, customers, employees and communities it serves. These strategies (each followed by a quote from Brandt’s speech) are outlined below:

• Continue to Prepare for Arizona’s Future. "Our success does not come by chance. It flows from core business fundamentals: consistent innovation, long-term planning, corporate responsibility and old-fashioned hard work.”
• Aggressively Manage Costs. "Early last year, we saw signs of the pending economic slowdown and began taking decisive action to reduce costs. Our cost management culture not only helps us navigate today’s tough business climate, but positions us well for the inevitable return of strong economic growth in Arizona.”
• Continue Delivering Outstanding Operational Performance. "We have a consistent and continuing legacy as outstanding operators of generating units, as well as transmission and distribution systems. Last year we kept the power flowing for customers 99.97 percent of the time, a performance that again placed us solidly in the top quartile of our industry.”
• Remain at the Forefront of Innovation. "We continue to seek ways to extract more value from every megawatt. To this end, we will spend $26 million in 2009 on programs and products to help our customers use energy more efficiently and save money.”
• Pursue Long-Term Solutions to Our Business Challenges. "Cost controls alone cannot provide the financial health we will need to power Arizona’s future. APS will add another 600,000 customers by 2025, which amounts to 55 percent growth. Consequently, we must reach satisfactory agreement with our regulators and customers on ways to pay for the costs of serving that growth.”

Brandt added that as Pinnacle’s Chairman and CEO, shareholders "have my utmost commitment to building and improving this superb company, while helping Arizona prosper and remain a beacon for new businesses and residents.”

A complete text of Brandt’s speech is available at the Company’s web site: www.pinnaclewest.com/presentations.

At the business portion of the annual meeting, Pinnacle West shareholders re-elected 13 individuals to the Company’s Board of Directors for one-year-terms (the year they first were elected to the Board is in parenthesis): Edward N. Basha, Jr., Chairman of the Board and CEO of Bashas’ supermarket chain (1999); Donald E. Brandt, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Pinnacle West Capital Corp. and Arizona Public Service Company (2009); Susan Clark-Johnson, former President, Gannett Newspaper Division, Gannett Co. (2008); Michael L. Gallagher, Attorney-at-Law and Chairman Emeritus with Gallagher & Kennedy, P.A. (1999); Pamela Grant, a civic leader and former President of Tablescapes Inc. (1985); Roy A. Herberger, Jr., President Emeritus of Thunderbird School of Global Management (1992); William S. Jamieson, President of Micah Institute of Asheville, N.C. (1991); Humberto S. Lopez, President of HSL Properties, Inc. (1995); Kathryn L. Munro, Principal of BridgeWest LLC (2000); Bruce J. Nordstrom, President of Nordstrom and Associates, PC (2000); W. Douglas Parker, Chairman of the Board and CEO of US Airways Group (2007); William J. Post, former Chairman of the Board and CEO of Pinnacle West Capital Corp. (1997); and William L. Stewart, former President and CEO of Pinnacle West Energy Corp. (2001).

In other proposals, shareholders ratified the selection of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the Company’s independent auditors for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2009. Shareholders also approved an individual shareholder’s proposal asking the Board to amend the Company’s Bylaws to allow shareholders owning 10 percent of Pinnacle’s common stock to call special shareholder meetings.

Based in Phoenix, Pinnacle West has consolidated assets of about $11.4 billion. Through its subsidiaries, the Company generates, sells and delivers electricity and sells energy-related products and services to retail and wholesale customers in the western United States.