Everyone who moves here asks the same first question, usually standing in an empty kitchen with the boxes still on the truck: who do I call for power? In most American cities there is one answer. In Scottsdale there are two electric utilities, you don’t get to pick, and the line between them runs through neighborhoods. Then there’s the city for water, sewer and trash, Southwest Gas if the house has gas, and an internet company. None of it is hard. It just has an order, and if you do it in that order it fits in one afternoon at a laptop, a week before the keys.
Step one: find out whether you’re SRP or APS
Scottsdale is split between SRP, the Salt River Project, and APS, Arizona Public Service. Arizona has no retail electric choice: each utility holds an exclusive territory, the address decides, and the only way to switch is to move. The rough rule, from the city’s own General Plan map and explained in the SRP vs. APS entry:
- South Scottsdale, below about McDonald Drive and Chaparral Road: mostly SRP. That’s the land that was on the original 1903 irrigation project.
- Old Town and the original townsite, roughly Camelback to Thomas west of Hayden: APS, an island inside SRP’s south that dates to the town’s first electric company in 1918.
- Everything north, McCormick Ranch to Desert Mountain: APS, with small SRP pockets at the Fountain Hills edge and out by Rio Verde Drive.
The rule gets you close. The line follows old farm boundaries, alleys and in a few places the middle of a block, so type the exact address into the service-area lookup on aps.com or srpnet.com before you do anything else. Or ask the seller or landlord for a July bill; the logo at the top settles it, and the total tells you what you’re in for.
SRP vs. APS: is APS a private company?
Yes, and that’s most of the difference. APS is investor-owned, the main subsidiary of Pinnacle West Capital, a publicly traded company. Its rates are set by the five elected members of the Arizona Corporation Commission in public rate cases. APS has one open now: it filed in 2025 asking for a net increase of about 14 percent, the evidentiary hearing has finished, and a commission vote is expected late this year, so check the news before you budget off an old bill.
SRP is public: a political subdivision of the state, not regulated by the Corporation Commission, governed by a board that landowners inside the old project area elect, with votes weighted by acreage. If you buy a house on SRP land, you’re an elector. SRP sets its own prices after its own public process; its board approved its first change to base prices since 2019 in February 2025, about 3.5 percent on the average home’s bill from November 2025, and then cut summer 2026 bills by a few dollars a month on a temporary basis.
Why APS rates are different from SRP’s comes down to that: different owners, different regulators, different costs and different plan menus. Neither is “the cheap one” in every house; the plan you choose and the hours you run the air conditioner matter as much as the logo.
Deposits
APS asks most new customers for a security deposit, depending on a credit check, and sizes it at roughly two times an average bill. You can avoid it with a credit check that comes back clean, a letter of credit from your previous electric company, or a joint account holder with good history. If you pay on time, APS refunds it with interest as a credit in the 13th month.
SRP’s posted standard residential deposit is $290, often waived at sign-up based on a utility credit score from Experian, so unfreeze your Experian report before you apply. SRP also offers M-Power, its prepaid plan, with no credit check, a $100 refundable deposit and a one-time $30 setup fee; you buy power in advance like a phone card. It’s a real option for a short lease.
Set it up at least a week before move-in, for the date you get the keys, so the air conditioning is running when the truck arrives.
The summer rate plan is the decision that matters
Your power bill here is a summer bill. A Scottsdale house that costs little to run in February can cost several hundred dollars in August, and both utilities price the late afternoon, when everybody’s air conditioner is fighting the sun, at a premium. Both run time-of-use plans. The windows, from each utility’s current plan pages:
- APS: on-peak is 4 to 7 p.m. on weekdays, all year. Its “summer” is the May through October bills, and in winter there’s a cheap super off-peak window from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays. A version with a demand charge, billed on your highest on-peak hour, is also on the menu.
- SRP’s newer plans: Conserve, on-peak 6 to 9 p.m. on weekdays, and Manage Demand, on-peak 5 to 10 p.m. with a demand charge. Both have super off-peak pricing from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day. There is also a Basic plan with one flat price around the clock. SRP’s older time-of-use and EZ-3 plans are closed to new customers and will be retired by late 2029, so if a neighbor swears by “the 3-to-6 plan,” that’s why you can’t have it.
How to use it: run the dishwasher, the laundry and the pool pump in the cheap hours, pre-cool the house hard before the peak starts and let it drift a few degrees until the peak ends. That habit works on either side of the line. If you’re shopping for solar, the side of the line matters more than the panels; the SRP vs. APS entry explains why.
Step two: the city, for water, sewer and trash
One account covers all three. Scottsdale Water delivers your drinking water and takes the wastewater, and the city’s Solid Waste division collects trash and recycling, all on a single city utility bill. Start it with the Start Service form on the city’s utilities page; it checks your address first to confirm the city serves it, because a few “Scottsdale” addresses are in Paradise Valley, Phoenix or on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, which have their own providers. The ZIP code entry explains why.
Deposits: the city waives one for renters who have had city service for 12 months in the last two years with no more than two late payments in the most recent year; otherwise a deposit is billed. Homeowners give escrow information instead. The city’s utility billing line, 480-312-2461, quotes the current amount.
Trash and recycling: a black container for trash and a separate one for recycling, each picked up on its own day, often not the same day. Find yours with the city’s “Find My Pickup Schedule” address lookup, and put the cans at the curb, wheels against it, by 5 a.m. The city lists the single-family rate at $32.42 a month, recycling included. Some older neighborhoods have shared 300-gallon containers in the alley instead of curb cans.
Brush and bulk: once a month, the city collects piles of brush and bulky items from the curb over a week that starts on your scheduled Monday. Piles go out by 5 a.m. that Monday and no earlier than three days before, and no bigger than 10 feet long, 6 wide and 4 high. That is where the old couch goes. Residents can also haul up to 2,000 pounds a week to the Salt River Landfill under the city’s contract.
The water itself is safe, mostly river water from the Colorado and the Salt, and very hard. The Scottsdale Water guide explains where it comes from; the first-year note explains what it does to your faucets.
One south Scottsdale wrinkle: if your yard has berms and a valve box, the lot may carry SRP flood irrigation rights, which is a separate SRP water schedule, not a city service. Ask the seller when it last ran.
Step three: gas, if the house has it
Not every house does. Plenty of Scottsdale homes are all-electric; look for a gas meter on the side of the house, or a gas range and water heater, before you call. If you have one, Southwest Gas is the utility. Start service online or by phone, and book a few days ahead, because a technician has to come out to turn the gas on, and someone has to be home or the meter has to be reachable, with any gate unlocked. Southwest Gas may ask for a deposit if it can’t establish your credit.
Step four: internet, which takes longest
Book this first, actually, because installation appointments are the thing with a waiting list. The usual options in Scottsdale:
- Cox, the cable company, which reaches most of the city.
- AT&T Fiber, which since February 2026 includes the former Quantum Fiber and CenturyLink fiber network, in the parts of town where it’s been built.
- Fixed wireless 5G home internet from the phone carriers, the easy no-install option.
- Satellite service such as Starlink for the far north and the desert edges, where wired service thins out.
Availability is address by address. Check the address on the FCC’s National Broadband Map, then on each provider’s site, and ask the neighbors on the HOA board or the neighborhood app which one actually works on your street.
The order, in one afternoon
- Look up the electric utility for the exact address, SRP or APS. Start service for move-in day, unfreeze Experian first if it’s SRP, and pick a time-of-use plan.
- Book the internet install for the first day you’ll be there.
- Start city service for water, sewer and trash, and look up your pickup days.
- Book Southwest Gas, if the house has gas, for a day someone’s home.
- Read the HOA rules on trash cans, if you have an HOA. The HOA entry explains why your first letter will be about them.
Then go buy a windshield sunshade, a blacklight for scorpions and a jug of vinegar for the faucets. The moving guide has the bigger picture, and the first-year note has the rest of the list.
Quick answers
SRP vs. APS: which one serves my address? It depends on the exact address, not the city or the ZIP code. Most of south Scottsdale is SRP, Old Town and everything north is APS, and both utilities’ websites have a service-area lookup that settles it.
Is APS a private company? Yes. APS is an investor-owned utility owned by Pinnacle West Capital, and its rates are set by the Arizona Corporation Commission. SRP is a public power district governed by a board elected by landowners.
Why are APS rates different from SRP’s? Different owners and different regulators set them: the Corporation Commission for APS, SRP’s own elected board for SRP. Their plan menus and peak hours differ too, so the cheaper one depends on the house and the plan.
Can I choose between SRP and APS? No. Arizona doesn’t have retail electric choice, and each utility has an exclusive territory.