SRP officials hotly contest clean-energy ballot measure (prop 127)

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Salt River Project officials on Monday hotly debated whether they should get involved in campaign efforts opposing a clean-energy ballot measure that voters will decide in November.

The public utility ultimately decided to contribute a token $50,000 toward the effort but with the promise that the funds won’t go to groups affiliated with Arizona Public Service Co., which has been in an all-out campaign to defeat the measure.

The debate within SRP reflects a larger discussion taking place across the state as voters and institutions take sides on Proposition 127, which would require regulated utilities such as APS to get half their power from renewables by 2030.

Regulated utilities only get about 8 percent of their power from solar, wind and other renewables today. SRP has a goal to get 20 percent of its power through efficiency and renewables by 2020. Regulated utilities have mandates to get 22 percent of their power from efficiency by 2020 and 15 percent from renewables by 2025.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/09/10/salt-river-project-officials-divided-over-clean-energy-measure-proposition-127/1260153002/

I'm an SRP shareholder, every year I file a form and get back a couple months worth of electric payments ($300-$400) I make to APS because SRP is basically a not for profit co-op. I don't know why we allow for-profit electric companies in the first place.

I'm leaning no on 127, I would rather see legislation that allows for adjustment to prevent large increases in electric rates in case the renewable goals prove too costly.

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1. New Modeling: Palo Verde Stays Open with Arizona's Prop. 127

The Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station will stay open in a future where Arizona electric utilities Arizona Public Service (APS), Tucson Electric Power (TEP) meet the 50 percent renewable energy standard in Arizona’s Proposition 127, and Salt River Project and utilities in Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico also pursue a lot more renewable energy.

This finding, based on a NRDC energy modeling analysis conducted by renowned energy firm ICF, adds to the already-substantial evidence — from earlier modeling we released June 5, from the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory — that Palo Verde is viable in a high-wind-and-solar energy future.

These robust analyses contradict the unsubstantiated claims of Arizona’s largest for-profit electric utility, APS, that more renewable energy would force them to shut down Palo Verde early. APS, which owns 29.1 percent of the Palo Verde plant, has vociferously opposed Proposition 127, on the November general election ballot in Arizona. Prop. 127 would require APS and other utilities regulated by the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) to get 50 percent of their electricity from renewable sources like wind and solar by 2030. As part of their “No” campaign, APS has claimed that Prop. 127 would require them to shut down Palo Verde in 2025, something that would not just be unnecessary and imprudent but also outside their authority.

https://www.nrdc.org/experts/dylan-sullivan/new-modeling-palo-verde-stays-open-arizonas-prop-127