Salt River Project delivered a record amount of energy to its retail customers on Sunday, utility officials said.

The new peak of 8,219 megawatts was set between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Aug. 4. One megawatt is enough energy to power about 225 average homes, according to an SRP release.

The previous mark – 8,163 MW – was set between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. July 18.

Strong customer demand is the result of several factors, including extreme daytime temperatures, higher overnight temperatures and an increase in the number of SRP commercial and residential electric customers, the release stated.

The high temperature recorded on Aug. 4 was 116 degrees.  

“SRP’s resource planning, operational readiness and power generation teams ensure we have enough generating resources available to serve these increasingly high loads,” Laura Olson, SRP senior manager of short-term trading, said.

“Our trading and operational teams are then well-positioned to maintain reliability, especially during times of extreme heat, calling upon a mix of energy, including solar, batteries, wind, natural gas and hydro power.” 

Several new resources came online in 2024 to help meet summer peak demand. They include the 250 MW Sierra Estrella and 90 MW Superstition four-hour energy storage facilities, the 200 MW Brittlebush Solar Park and 99 MW of natural gas generation at the Copper Crossing Energy and Research Center. 

For energy-saving tips: savewithsrp.com. To report an outage or check on updates: srpnet.com/outagemap.

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