Phoenix-area power company approves customer rate increase starting in November

PHOENIX – Customers of Salt River Project will be zapped with a price hike for power starting in November, after the Arizona public utility voted for the increase Monday.

SRP’s board of directors said the yearly price will rise an average of $5.58 per month. Directors also approved the same amount to also be applied beginning in November 2023.

The power company pointed to higher costs of natural gas and added it wouldn’t be collecting $124 million that customers owe from previous years.

“SRP is rebalancing our prices to address our substantial under collection with two incremental increases and forgoing collection of a significant amount so that price changes are gradual, and costs are spread equitably among all customers,” CEO Mike Hummel said in a press release.

“By breaking up the necessary increase and announcing this upfront, we allow customers to anticipate and plan for upcoming changes.”

In a related move, SRP voted to keep developing its project at Copper Crossing near Florence. The first phase will add a pair of natural gas turbines and small-scale, long-duration energy storage technologies.

“This project will help SRP meet the Valley’s growing power capacity needs, and specifically, the forecasted critical need for additional generation resources by summer of 2024,” Hummel said in a separate announcement Monday.

SRP provides electricity to about 1.1 million customers in metro Phoenix and water to about half that many.

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