SRP, Aypa Power annouce 250 MW / 1,000 MWh battery in Arizona to serve Phoenix area

Arizona-based utility Salt River Project (SRP) has entered into an agreement with Aypa Power to set up a 250 MW / 1,000 MWh battery energy storage system that will connect to the Arizona grid.

Dubbed the Signal Butte energy storage project, the battery will be located in Mesa, Arizona, sited adjacent to a substation serving multiple operating and under-construction data centers, and utilize lithium-ion batteries. It will primarily serve the Phoenix metropolitan area and be able to power over 50,000 homes for a period of four hours, SRP said in a release, adding that the project is scheduled to be operational by the middle of 2026.

The Signal Butte BESS will be owned and operated by Aypa Power, which purchased the project from Eolian during the late stages and took over responsibility for remaining development and construction. Once the battery is online, SRP will have full dispatch control of the BESS. The project will typically be charged during the afternoon when energy costs and demand are lower and discharged during the early evening when demand is at peak levels and prices are higher.

In the release, SRP noted that it current had nearly 1,300 MW of batteries and pumped hydro and 2,300 MW of carbon-free resources serving customers. The company said it also has significant amounts of solar and storage capacities under development, and that once these planned capacities had been operationalized by the end of 2027, nearly half of SRP's power generation would be carbon-free.

Moe Hajabed, CEO of Aypa Power, commented: "We are proud to announce our first energy storage project in Arizona… The Signal Butte project builds on SRP's sustainability commitments and helps maintain the reliability needs of its customers."

Bobby Olsen, Associate General Manager and Chief Planning, Strategy and Sustainability Executive at SRP said in the release: "SRP is proud of our continued efforts to deploy battery storage, which will help us maximize use of renewable resources and decarbonize our portfolio in the coming years."