By Salt River Project
As Phoenix and Maricopa County lead the nation in population growth and economic development, SRP continues to experience significant increases in customer electricity demand. Meeting this growth with adequate power supply is now met with new challenges which include supply chain issues, planned coal retirements, and decreased hydroelectric generation from the drought-stricken Colorado River.
To help meet projected demand and ensure SRP can maintain reliable electric service for customers beginning in summer 2026, SRP is issuing an All-Source Request for Proposals to seek additional power resources that can provide at least 200MW during the summer peak to be online as early as May 1, 2026, and at least an additional 300MW by May 1, 2027. This is enough to power more than 112,000 average size homes.
SRP will evaluate and compare proposals that meet the minimum requirements identified in the RFP, including SRP’s self-developed resource options. SRP currently serves customer energy needs with a diverse fuel mix including nuclear, coal, hydroelectric, natural gas, battery storage and renewable resources including solar, wind, biomass and geothermal.
To the extent the total requested capacity SRP is seeking is not satisfied by carbon-free resource proposals, SRP may procure up to an additional 500MW of carbon-free resources. This is contingent on the projects being feasible and cost effective, and if SRP can accommodate these additional resources while maintaining customer reliability.
Resource projects selected through this all-source RFP process will also support SRP’s 2035 Sustainability Goals by adding to new renewable-resource and storage system projects SRP has under contract and expects to have online by 2025.
More detail and documented progress on SRP’s renewable energy goals can be found by reviewing SRP’s 2035 Sustainability Goals.
Respondents to the all-source RFP can view the details and register here.
Registration enables access to all RFP-related documents. As outlined, SRP will offer a web conference for respondents on March 20, 2023, and is requesting bid proposals by April 27, 2023. SRP anticipates short-list selection by Fall 2023. (Source)