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MEDIA ADVISORY
SRP planning for two Pinal County natural gas power plants
Generating facilities needed to meet growing demand for peaking power
Salt River Project has identified two locations in Pinal County for new electric generation facilities. The planned power plants will be constructed on two of the three sites that were presented to the public during a series of open houses held in June: the "Abel" site, adjacent to the Abel Substation in northwest Florence, and the "Pinal Central" site, adjacent to the Pinal Central Substation site south of Coolidge.
SRP is planning to proceed with development of the Abel and Pinal Central sites, leaving the third proposed site near the Eloy Detention Center, for possible future development. The construction of these new generating facilities is an integral part of SRP's plans to minimize new transmission and ensure continued reliable electric service to its customers.
The need for these two facilities is driven by the projected growth in SRP customer demands in Pinal, Gila and Maricopa counties. To meet this anticipated growth, SRP has estimated that it will need 2,500 megawatts (MW) of new generating capacity by 2022. Approximately 500 MW of the summer peaking capacity required by SRP will be met by an agreement to purchase the output of the proposed Coolidge Generating Station by TransCanada Corp. To meet the remaining capacity needs, SRP is planning the two new Pinal County facilities and is also considering power-purchase agreements and ownership interests in existing or new generation facilities.
Because the Abel Substation site is located within SRP's service territory and provides the greatest system support for the lowest cost, SRP is proposing to construct at that site a simple-cycle peaking-power plant that can provide up to 850 MW of summer capacity. That generating facility will become operational in stages, beginning as early as 2012 with full operating capacity available in 2016.
SRP will concurrently seek to permit a combined-cycle intermediate power plant at the Pinal Central site of up to 1,150 MW of summer capacity. That facility will also become operational in stages, and will be placed in service as dictated by need between 2014 and 2022.
In selecting these sites for the new generating facilities SRP considered a number of variables, including environmental factors, access to transmission and natural gas supplies, availability of water supplies and the opportunities for banking water, proximity to existing development, and industrial designations and land-use plans.
As part of the process to site the potential facilities, SRP will begin phase two of its public process with the following public open houses:
- Thursday, Oct. 16
6-8 p.m.
Copper Basin Elementary School
28682 N. Main St., Queen Creek
- Tuesday, Oct. 21
6-8 p.m.
Mary C. O'Brien School
1400 N. 11-Mile Corner Road, Casa Grande
The public process will culminate with a hearing before the Arizona Power Plant and Transmission Line Siting Committee. A final decision on whether to grant a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility for any power plant and its associated transmission lines will be decided at an open meeting of the Arizona Corporation Commission.
SRP is the third-largest public power utility in the nation, serving more than 930,000 electric customers in Maricopa and Pinal counties.