Dive Brief:
- Slowing load growth has led to a spate of delayed or transmission canceled projects, say Arizona regulators, who last week signed off on a report assessing the state's grid. Plans still call for about 60 transmission projects to be built over the next decade, however.
- More than half of 18 planned projects above 345-kV have been delayed since 2012, the report found, though regulators say the state's transmission grid can still support a reliable wholesale market.
- The delayed projects largely follow the decline in Arizona's load growth, according to Platts. Four years ago forecasts called for load to reach 22,000 MW in 2018, but those forecasts have now been scaled back to around 19,000 MW.
Dive Insight:
Every two years Arizona regulators issue a report on the state of the state's transmission grid, and since the last report several projects have been delayed as growth in the state's power demand begins to ease. The commission found that since 2012, 10 projects above 345 kV have been delayed as much as three years, and another three have been delayed without targeted inservice dates, according to Platts. One project was canceled outright.
"The overall delay of most near-term transmission projects ... is consistent with this shift in the demand forecast," the report read.
Interconnection queues are also smaller. The report found that interconnection queues two years ago stood at 18,450 MW but now are just over 10,000 MW, with the bulk of that aimed at California's markets.
Despite the slowdown, Platts reports that utilities and other companies are planning 60 transmission projects in Arizona amounting to about 900 miles. A "significant share" of the mileage is related to 500-kV projects, according to the report.
