The Arizona Corporation Commission has given its approval to the SRP Coolidge Expansion Project, a natural gas plant that SRP stated will help it meet the region’s growing energy needs while the utility works to add more solar, wind and storage resources.

The commission on Wednesday approved an amended certificate of environmental compatibility for the project. SRP was able to amend the certificate due to a settlement with the town of Randolph.

Randolph is about five miles south of Coolidge and one mile southwest of the SRP Coolidge Generation Station. In the settlement, SRP agreed to additional mitigation efforts and to provide more financial support to assist the Randolph community. Randolph is a historically black community that was settled in the 1930s.

“We are grateful to the Randolph community for the opportunity to listen to and address their concerns regarding the Coolidge Expansion Project,” stated Bobby Olsen, SRP associate general manager and chief planning, strategy and sustainability executive, in a press release. “SRP looks forward to working with the community to follow through on the commitments we’ve made.”

SRP will implement the following measures once construction starts on the expansion project:

• Reduce the number of generation units for the expansion from 16 to 12, slightly move the location of the new units to make them less visible to the community and limit the operational use of the new units to 30% capacity factor.
• Provide funding toward the construction and operations of a Randolph community center.
• Provide funding for a K-12 mentoring program and for the preparation and implementation of a community development plan.
• Add additional air-quality measures, including further road paving to offset dust in the area.
• Provide funding for the design and construction of community markers.
• Provide funding for educational and recreational activities for families in Randolph.
• Double the amount of funding for the scholarship and job training programs for Randolph residents and their descendants.
• Fund a program to upgrade homes in Randolph.

SRP had already agreed to other mitigation efforts for Randolph, regardless of whether the certificate of environmental compatibility was granted. They included:

• scholarship and job training programs totaling $4 million over 20 years 
• a fund to prepare a nomination for Randolph to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
• a grant writing firm to provide support for access to federal and state grants.

In the press release, SRP stated that the 575-megawatt Coolidge Expansion Project will provide enough energy to serve more than 139,000 average homes at once and support the integration of solar, wind and storage resources.

SRP’s new solar and battery resources recently came online as part of the company’s goal to add 2,025 megawatts of solar and wind generation and 1,100 megawatts of batteries to power nearly half a million homes by 2025. SRP stated that by 2035 it is aiming to deliver 75% of energy from carbon-free resources.