SRP Ensuring Reliable, Affordable and Sustainable Power and Water

Photos courtesy of Chandler Chamber of Commerce

SRP has provided water and power to the Valley for more than 100 years, and that experience continues to serve our customers well.

SRP and our 5,000 employees have long been recognized as one of the top utilities in the nation and we are at the forefront of driving extraordinary changes to the power grid, our watershed and the greater Phoenix community while always doing right by our customers.

This means ensuring reliable, affordable and sustainable power and water now and for generations to come.

Reliability and Affordability

As a not-for-profit, community-based utility, SRP has among the lowest electricity rates in the southwestern United States and the lowest rates of any major utility in the state. This can be attributed to careful planning by the company and our publicly elected board of directors, and our customers have made it clear that we must continue to prioritize affordability and reliability even as we substantially grow our electric system.

SRP has among the best reliability rankings in the nation, and we continue to invest in equipment and technology to improve our grid.

Responsible Decarbonization

SRP is taking significant, industry-leading steps to decarbonize the power it generates for one of the fastest-growing service territories in the country. In the last year alone, we’ve doubled the amount of utility-scale solar energy on the grid and are proud of the fact that our customers are benefiting from enough clean energy to power nearly 500,000 homes. Five additional solar facilities are currently under development. When they are operational by the end of 2027, nearly half our generation will be carbon free.

And we aren’t close to being done. Our board recently approved more ambitious sustainability goals, including net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. To help reach this goal and meet the projected 56% increase in energy needed to serve our customers over the next 10 years while also retiring most of our coal generation, SRP will double the size of our current electrical system. We’ll do this by adding new carbon-free generation and new storage resources by 2035.

To maintain a balanced, low-cost grid and to meet the unique challenges of our Valley, new fast-ramping natural gas units will also be part of SRP’s future generation mix. This technology allows SRP to meet our customers’ energy needs and better integrate intermittent renewables, which are critical to maintaining our industry-leading reliability that helps keep our customers safe, especially during Arizona’s hot summer days (and nights).

SRP will also continue to support our growing number of customers who choose to add rooftop solar and batteries to their homes. We offer a variety of ways to help evaluate potential projects and avoid scams, including a rooftop solar calculator and a list of preferred solar installers.

Water Resiliency

SRP was created when a group of Phoenix-area landowners pledged their land as collateral for a federal loan to build Theodore Roosevelt Dam, establishing a regular flow of water to the Valley and ensuring our long-term growth.

SRP now supplies water to almost half the Phoenix region. Even though our water comes from a watershed that is expected to be less impacted by climate change than the Colorado River, we continue to collaborate with state agencies, cities and tribes to develop programs and infrastructure that will help maximize the Valley’s future water supply.

These include increasing storage capacity on the Verde River and the SRP Central Arizona Project Canal Interconnection, allowing water to be moved to communities that need it. We are also seeking approval to extend the amount of time SRP can hold water in a portion of the Flood Control Space at Roosevelt Dam to put more of it to use, particularly during times of heavy precipitation like we experienced last winter.

SRP and our partners will continue to plan for future growth and variable climate conditions to help ensure reliable and well-managed surface water and groundwater supplies.

While we’ve experienced incredible change over the last 100 years, one thing has remained constant: We are driven to always make decisions in the best interests of our customers and the communities we serve. This commitment is ongoing and will become even more important to ensure reliable, affordable and sustainable power and water as we address critical challenges facing our company and our state.

David Rousseau is SRP board of directors president and Jim Pratt is SRP general manager and chief executive officer.