Conservationists have criticized Salt River Project’s recent forecast for energy production, saying they wanted to see more renewable energy in the mix.
But the utility says it remains committed to renewable energy as it looks forward.
SRP spent about two years examining factors such as growth forecasts, energy production and affordability as it drew up several likely scenarios for future power consumption.
The utility says the grid has become increasingly complex, with different sources of energy, new technology and rapid change.
It looked for ways to balance those realities with reliability, customer cost and new development.
"The most striking result that we saw was that the pace of transformation is significant, that we have to prepare to double, if not triple our generating capacity over the next 10 years," said Angie Bond-Simpson of SRP.
She says the utility will also have to prepare for hundreds of miles of new transmission lines and other infrastructure.
