SRP applies for stimulus funds for smart projects

TEMPE, ARIZONA - Salt River Project has applied for more than $80 million in stimulus funds from the U.S. Department of Energy for smart metering and smart electrical grid projects.

Officials with the Tempe-based utility say the extra money would not diminish the need for an 8.8 percent electric rate increase pending before SRP's board of directors, but it might reduce the size of future rate hikes.

SRP officials say the projects being sought for stimulus funding would give customers more options for controlling their energy use, improve reliability and promote clean energy.

Smart meters can send data via radio signals back to the utility, allowing the meter to be read automatically by a computer at an SRP control center.

SRP has already deployed more than 400,000 smart meters and wants to install another 540,000 by the fall of 2011, when every customer would have one.