UtilitiesTuesday, November 3
SRP's board is weighing a temporary pause on new data centers
The Mesa Today team
If you get power from SRP, this one's for you. Board members consulted utility staff Monday about curtailing new data center interconnection agreements, amid concerns that residential customers may end up subsidizing the AI data center boom's energy bill.
Director-at-large Krista O'Brien said she's heard SRP plans to grow by 4,700 megawatts by 2035, with 3,000 of those megawatts going to data centers. SRP's chief legal executive, Michael O'Connor, said that seemed plausible.
Board members heard data centers could take 3,000 of 4,700 new megawatts
Source: KJZZ
View as table
| Value | |
|---|---|
| SRP planned growth by 2035 | 4,700 MW |
| Data centers' share | 3,000 MW |
O'Connor said a moratorium is unlikely to pass because state law says SRP must serve any eligible customer in its territory, including parts of Mesa, Tempe and Chandler. John Tucker, SRP's director of financial strategy, said data centers pay more than it costs to serve them.
80%of a data center's peak demand costs SRP collects up front
Tucker called it an industry-leading level for developer collateral.
Source: KJZZ
- Transmission costs: SRP also collects collateral on them
- Some bills to data centers: nine figures, Tucker said
- Water supply: little public talk before executive session
And a gentler SRP note: a great horned owl once tangled in fishing line on a Mesa power line is back in the wild, released at a Mesa park by the SRP worker who saved her. Liberty Wildlife cared for her first.
Sources: KJZZ, 12News, FOX 10 Phoenix