Good news: Lower SRP bills due Nov. 1
Summer-like temperatures may still have Kyrene Corridor residents sweltering, but they don’t change the calendar’s unrelenting reality.
Nov. 1 signals the start of the winter season for Salt River Project customers, and with it, lower electricity prices. These lower prices will be in effect for all customer bills issued through the end of April.
Rising costs for fuel and purchased power needed to supply customers this past year, however, have led the SRP Board of Directors to approve a management proposal to increase the Fuel and Purchase Power Adjustment Factor by an average 3.6 percent, which will offset a small portion of the usual winter-price decreases.
The wintertime price decreases that SRP customers will receive, after the Nov. 1 adjustment, still amount to 25 percent for residential customers, 19 percent for commercial customers and 24 percent for large industrial customers.
The adjustment factor represents an annualized average increase in residential bills of about 3.1 percent, or about $2.93 a month, which will still keep SRP’s electric prices lower than 1991 levels and consistent with the price cap established by the state’s Electric Power Competition Act of 1998.
The adjustment factor is a straight pass-through of these fuel expenses, according to SRP officials. It is scheduled to end on June 1, 2004, when fuel expenses will be re-evaluated.
SRP says some of the factors contributing to the rise in fuel and purchased power expense include higher-than-anticipated natural gas and purchased power prices and the increased use of natural gas-fueled power plants and purchased power to serve retail customers.
SRP serves about 800,000 customers Valley-wide.