By Richard Dyer
Mail | Twitter: @RHDyer

Salt River Project is working on plans to provide a reliable source of electricity for the Meta Data Center being constructed on the southeast corner of Elliot and Ellsworth roads in Mesa.

Project Huckleberry, if approved by the Arizona Corp. Commission, includes 150- to 180-foot-tall towers with a half-mile double-circuit 230 kV transmission line and a substation to be operational by 2024, Kevin Woolfolk of SRP said at a recent open-house meeting at the Eastmark Visitor and Community Center.

Mylar balloons let loose and tangled in smaller 69 kV lines may cause faults in circuits, but not with the larger 230 kV transmission lines, which are more reliable, he said on May 3.

“There’s less of a risk of something going from one circuit to the other circuit and causing like a fault by doing the 230,” Woolfolk said. “So there’s less risk of something floating up here and actually creating a fault on the line itself.”

As the primary beneficiary of Project Huckleberry, Meta — formerly known as Facebook — is funding the cost of SRP’s electrical infrastructure required to serve its facility, according to a release.

The substation is to be constructed south of the southeast corner of Elliot and Ellsworth roads, according to a map shown at the open house meeting.

SRP is preparing an application on the transmission lines and substation to be filed with the Arizona Corporation Commission with public hearings before the Arizona Power Plant and Transmission Line Siting Committee, Manny Tarango, SRP senior regulatory policy analyst, said at the open house meeting.

“Our role is to make sure that we meet all of the statutory requirements that are laid out and so the ACC — the corporation commission — oversees those statutes. Before we go before the commission we have to go before the Arizona Power Plant and Transmission Line Siting Committee and they’re the ones that hold the hearings,” he said. “Typically they decide if the project is compatible with the environment.”

Hearings before the line-siting committee start at 1 p.m. June 27 at Delta Hotels by Marriott Phoenix Mesa, 200 N. Centennial Way in Mesa. If needed, the hearings will also be held at 9 a.m. June 28-July 1 at the same location.

The Arizona Corporation Commission vote could be in August, according to a poster at the open house.

For more information on the project or to comment, go to srp.net/huckleberry.

SRP is a community-based, not-for-profit public power utility and an electricity provider in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, serving approximately 1.1 million customers. SRP provides water to about half of the Valley’s residents, delivering more than 244 billion gallons of water (750,000 acre-feet) each year and manages a 13,000-square-mile watershed that includes an extensive system of reservoirs, wells, canals and irrigation laterals, the release states.

Richard Dyer
Managing Editor | East Valley
@RHDyer

rdyer@iniusa.org

Meet Richard
Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA since 1987, starting his career in Apache Junction as a copy editor and being promoted over the years to work as the editor of the Mesa Independent, news services editor for the East Valley office in Apache Junction, managing editor for the East Valley office, news services editor for the East Valley office and eventually also for the newspapers at INI’s then-Chandler office, managing editor again and as a news editor covering Apache Junction/Gold Canyon and Queen Creek. He helped start the Florence Independent while the news editor covering Apache Junction and Mesa news. In January 2023, he became associate managing editor for the East Valley newspapers and in August 2023 became managing editor for the East Valley newspapers of Chandler/Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, while also reporting on Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.  

Community: Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions. 

Education: University of Arizona with a master of arts in journalism and a bachelor of science in agricultural communication. Also continuing education at Mesa Community College in welding in a metal art sculpture class.

Random fact: Saw his first tornado on May 31, 2010, which was classified as an EF-2, as part of a stormchasing tour group.

Hobbies: He is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows.