PHOENIX — During the first seven months of its fiscal year, Salt River Project is collecting unusually high net revenue compared to the utility’s budget projections.
According to SRP’s monthly financial report presented this week to the SRP Board of Directors, the year-to-date combined net revenue, or profits, amounts to $502 million. That is $189 million more than the not-for-profit utility projected.
A spokesperson for the utility says a combination of record summer heat combined with lower costs for natural gas and power purchases have led to the revenue totals. If profit amounts hold through the next five months, customers would likely benefit in the long-term.
“Any excess revenues over costs are reinvested into the utility for future capital resource needs,” said Erica Roelfs, a spokesperson for SRP. “As recently announced, SRP will need to double or triple power resource capacity from a wide range of technologies in the next 10 years to continue serving SRP’s growing customer base affordably, reliably and sustainably.”
Over the past ten years, SRP’s annual net revenues have ranged from $16 million to $173 million.
Last year the SRP Board of Directors approved a rate increase that went into effect in November, averaging about 8% more on the average bill. During two years of the pandemic SRP gave back $200 million of excess revenue to customers to alleviate higher costs. There is no indication to date that will happen this year.
SRP customers paid 24% less for the same amount of electricity in 2022 compared to the Valley’s other major utility, the for-profit APS. A plan unveiled by SRP last year calls for tripling utility-scale solar generation over the next decade. However, critics say it does not go far enough to curb fossil fuels and they allege SRP’s solar policies are not as customer-friendly as APS, which is regulated by the Arizona Corporation Commission.
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