Arizona Public Service (APS) has announced plans to develop the Desert Sun Power Plant, a natural gas facility located west of Gila Bend, Arizona. The site is designed to add up to 2,000 megawatts (MW) of generation to Arizona’s energy grid, targeting rapidly increasing energy needs and high-demand sectors such as data centers. APS claims the project aims to balance growth without impacting existing residential and small business customers with increased costs.
The Desert Sun project will be developed in two phases. Phase 1 will add new capacity through APS’s existing competitive procurement process to serve current customer growth. Phase 2 introduces a subscription model specifically for extra-large energy users—data centers and similar facilities—who would fund their share of capacity through long-term contracts and assume development risks. APS states that this model protects residential and small business customers from subsidizing energy services for large-scale hyperscale operations.
APS says the new power plant is intended to integrate with Arizona’s diverse energy portfolio, which currently includes nuclear, solar, wind, battery storage, and coal resources. Advanced emissions controls will be implemented to meet federal and county air quality standards, and the plant is designed to operate at higher efficiency to limit overall emissions. Natural gas for the facility is expected to be supplied by the proposed Transwestern Pipeline’s Desert Southwest expansion project. APS will also build new transmission infrastructure to connect the plant to the wider grid.
For data center operators and other hyperscale users, the subscription model—scheduled for implementation in Phase 2 after the plant begins initial operations in late 2030—allows for deployment of large energy-intensive campuses without shifting capital or operational burdens to smaller customers. APS reports that requests from extra-large users now exceed 19,000 MW, more than double its 2025 peak demand record of 8,631 MW.
Jacob Tetlow, APS Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, stated, “Additional natural gas generation is essential to support our existing customers and to begin addressing unprecedented requests from extra-large energy users, such as data centers. By pursuing a ‘growth pays for growth’ strategy, this project protects customers while supporting data centers needed for the US to compete globally.”
APS will hold public open houses and is soliciting feedback for the Desert Sun Power Plant through its project website. The company serves 1.4 million homes and businesses in Arizona and emphasizes the role of the new facility for enhanced reliability and infrastructure modernization.
Source: Arizona Public Service (APS)
