| SRP Approves $100 Million Gas-Plant Purchase |
SRP Approves $100 Million Gas-Plant Purchase
The purchase was approved at a Sept. 12 board meeting. The plant is owned by Entegra Power of Tampa, which sold another unit at Gila River to Tucson Electric Power last year. The plant was built by different companies in the early 2000s to be used as a merchant plant selling power on the wholesale market. The 550 megawatts of capacity at the power block SRP is purchasing can generate enough electricity to supply about 138,000 homes at once. Utility officials said the purchase will help them meet increased demand from customers and will help defer spending on new power plants the public utility anticipated it would need. SRP has for several years planned to build new gas plants, and the purchase offered an "attractive economic opportunity" because it was much less expensive than a new build, spokesman Scott Harelson said. Gas plants also are useful because they can ramp up quickly, helping utilities balance the variable output of renewable-power sources like solar and wind energy. The power block No. 4 being purchased is a combined-cycle unit with two combustion turbines and two heat recovery steam generators. The deal is expected to close in May. |
Ryan Randazzo, The Republic | 
Salt River Project's elected board of directors approved spending $100 million to purchase a power block at the Gila River Power Station natural-gas-fired plant near Gila Bend.