APS expects sales to double by 2041, plans extending coal use to 2038 — SkimNews
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- Arizona Public Service told the Arizona Corporation Commission in Friday's integrated resource plan that it will keep the Four Corners coal plant operating past its planned 2031 retirement, evaluating an end date anywhere between 2031 and 2038 — a move the utility says could save customers close to $1 billion.
- APS projects peak demand above 14.5 GW in 2041, nearly 60% higher than its August record of about 9.2 GW, with annual retail sales reaching about 80,600 GWh versus about 34,200 GWh in 2025 and peak demand growing 3.4% a year.
- APS's preferred plan brings 2,000 MW of utility-scale solar and 2,500 MW of battery storage online by 2029, putting about 6 GW of storage on its system by 2030, while resource planning director Mike Eugenis said "Reliability is nonnegotiable."
- Cholla Power Plant heads a gas build in the plan: repowering it as a 387-MW facility by 2030, adding 1,107 MW through new combustion turbines and uprates at existing APS sites during 2026-2030, and bringing on the 1,238 MW Desert Sun combined-cycle facility in 2032 — 4,000 MW of gas additions through 2036.
- APS warns of "increased potential for unrealized loads" from sustained record large-customer interest and is requiring minimum demand- and energy-based contract terms, collateral in case of default and early exit fees; population growth adds up to 29,000 residential customers annually and 1.5%-2.5% customer growth through 2030.
- APS revised its 2042 EV adoption forecast 18% below the 2023 projection and its behind-the-meter solar forecast 30% lower, while raising customer-sited storage to 1.2 GW by 2045 from 69 MW today — roughly 95% above its last 2023 storage forecast for 2032 — with EVs still reaching 1.1 million and 5.2 TWh of charging load by 2045.
- Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter director Sandy Bahr said the plan "further delays our move from gas and coal to solar and wind," and Vote Solar West's Kate Bowman said APS "failed to consider" rooftop solar, battery storage and other distributed resources as regulators review the filing.
Why it matters: The Arizona Corporation Commission is weighing a plan whose costs land on ratepayers: APS attributes close to $1 billion in savings to extending coal to 2038, while Sierra Club and Vote Solar West counter that the plan delays solar and wind and skips rooftop solar and batteries. APS says collateral and exit fees blunt unrealized-load risk.
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