A Gas Pipeline Is Coming to Springerville. Round Valley's Furnaces Aren't on the Route.

Springerville Councilmember R. Barry Williams was at the League of Arizona Cities and Towns conference when an Energy Transfer official came up to him. He later met with company representatives about a planned 30-inch natural gas line from near Grants, New Mexico, to the Coronado and Springerville generating stations. According to the White Mountain Independent, Williams asked the obvious local question when he reported back at the Sept. 16 council meeting: could the line supply natural gas to area communities? Company representatives told him no interested parties were seeking local service at this point, though connections might be possible later.

That answer matters if you're comparing Round Valley with other places to buy. You'll hear about the pipeline. You won't get piped gas from it. Any house you buy in Eagar or Springerville comes with its own heating system, and that system becomes your fuel bill, your supplier relationship and your winter routine.

Two customers, 125 miles

Energy Transfer's Springerville Lateral project page describes a 125-mile underground line. It starts in McKinley County, New Mexico, and ends at the two generating stations in Apache County. Capacity is already spoken for. The page allocates 210 MMcf/d to Coronado and 415 MMcf/d to Springerville. It projects construction starting in January 2029 and service in November 2029. FERC pre-filing and open houses are still listed as next steps.

A lateral like this is built for two customers, each taking very large volumes. A residential gas system works differently. It needs a utility to build and run neighborhood mains and meters, and enough households signed up to justify the cost. The utility that serves much of the region, UniSource, lists its gas territory as Coconino, Mohave, Navajo, Santa Cruz and Yavapai counties. UniSource's own description leaves out Apache County. So the pipe will pass through, but nobody is set up to deliver its gas to houses.

Why the plants are worth a pipeline

The plants get the gas because their owners are converting them from coal rather than shutting them down. Ownership of the Springerville Generating Station is split. Tucson Electric Power owns Units 1 and 2, SRP owns Unit 4, and Tri-State owns Unit 3. The Arizona Corporation Commission approved TEP's request to run its units on natural gas on March 4, 2026. It approved SRP's Unit 4 amendment 4-0 on July 8, 2026. Tri-State has not announced plans for Unit 3.

SRP's project page calls the conversion the lowest-cost way to keep a firm capacity resource. SRP expects its customers' peak demand to grow 50% from 2025 through 2035. It estimates the conversion will save $45 million compared with building a new gas plant and about $826 million compared with adding long-duration lithium-ion batteries through 2049. SRP plans to stop coal generation at the site and finish the conversion by late 2029. It ties the project to its Coal Communities Transition partnership with Apache County. SRP's board approved the Coronado coal-to-gas conversion on June 24, 2025, and also expects that work done by late 2029.

In short, the plants that anchor Round Valley's power industry are being set up to keep running after coal ends. That's a real economic story for the area. It just doesn't come with a gas meter.

What actually heats houses here

The Census Bureau's American Community Survey asks households for their main heating fuel. The 2020–2024 five-year estimates for Round Valley's two ZIP codes look nothing like a Valley subdivision.

These estimates come from the Census Reporter data for table B25040. They're samples with margins of error. The wood count for 85925 carries a margin of plus or minus 199 units, for example. Even so, the shape is clear. In the Eagar ZIP, wood is the most common main heating fuel. In the Springerville ZIP, propane leads. Utility gas barely registers in either.

A buyer moving from a gas-served neighborhood shouldn't treat "heat" as a single line on a listing. Two houses at the same price can come with very different ongoing costs, depending on whether they burn split wood, fill a tank or draw from the electric co-op.

Reading the heating line on a Round Valley listing

Propane homes run on a tank and a supplier. Ferrellgas lists a Springerville location at 264 W. Main and says it serves both Eagar and Springerville. Sierra Propane lists a Springerville office on East Main Street. There's no Arizona-specific propane price to anchor a budget. The U.S. Energy Information Administration's weekly survey reported a national residential average of $2.638 per gallon for the week of Oct. 12, 2026. Its state rows don't include Arizona. Treat that number as a reference point. Your actual price comes from the supplier's quote.

Electric homes pay Navopache Electric Cooperative rates. The 2026 standard residential schedule has a $36 monthly availability charge. Energy costs 7.835 cents per kWh for the first 400 kWh and 11.885 cents per kWh above that, so a home that heats with electricity spends most of the winter on the higher tier. Navopache also offers an optional residential Winter Time-of-Use rate from October through April. On-peak hours are 6 to 11 a.m. and 5 to 10 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and Sunday is always off-peak. The co-op's 2026 rate page lists that winter rate at 6.069 cents off-peak and 16.12 cents on-peak. That gap is the whole reason electric thermal storage heaters exist. Navopache describes ETS heaters as storing electricity during off-peak hours and releasing heat during on-peak hours, warming a room or a whole house. Its Energy Services page links to ETS heaters, time-of-use details and 2026 home energy audits. All of these are published tariffs. Check them against your own bill once you own the home.

Wood homes depend on the stove or insert and on a reliable supply of fuel. In a ZIP where wood leads the heating survey, the stove is a working system, and buyers should look at it that way.

Whatever the setup, a few questions get past the listing's one-word heating field:

• What is the primary heat source, and is there a backup?
• If it's propane, is the tank owned or leased, and which supplier fills it?
• If it's electric, is the home on standard or Winter Time-of-Use billing, and does it have ETS heaters?
• If it's wood, what kind of stove or insert is it, and how has the seller sourced firewood?
• Can the seller share a winter's worth of utility or fuel receipts?

The town utility project that does touch Eagar taps

Round Valley does have a utility project aimed at homes. It's about water. The White Mountain Independent reported that Eagar's council voted Oct. 6 to support a grant application to restore the town's springline and expand storage. The springline was damaged during the 2025 Greer Fire and the erosion that followed. The paper tied the resulting water shortage to suspended public irrigation, the splash pad closure, declining well levels and well-pump damage from sediment. An existing EPA grant will help replace or update the line from the spring to the tank. Another funding opportunity from the state's Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA) is expected in December. The plan adds a 1-million-gallon tank and keeps the existing 500,000-gallon tank. Town staff said restoring the springline could capture more water from the existing source and reduce reliance on groundwater. The article gives no total cost or completion date.

So the water system is being reworked for the town's own customers, while the gas pipeline is being built for two power plants.

Dates on the calendar

1. November 2026. Energy Transfer plans public meetings in St. Johns and Round Valley, according to Williams' September report. Dates had not been announced at that meeting.
2. December 2026. The WIFA funding opportunity Eagar is preparing for is expected to open.
3. January 2029. Projected start of lateral construction.
4. November 2029. Projected in-service date for the lateral, as SRP targets late 2029 to end coal generation at Springerville.

Quick answers

Could homes ever connect to the line? Company representatives told Williams connections might be possible later, but no parties were seeking local service. A household connection would need a gas utility willing to build distribution in Apache County.

Is the lateral the same as the big Transwestern expansion? No. Energy Transfer's Desert Southwest expansion is a separate 516-mile, 42-inch trunkline, also targeted for late 2029. The Springerville Lateral is the 125-mile connection to the two plants.

Does the conversion change my Navopache bill? Navopache is a separate electric cooperative with its own published 2026 rates. The plant conversions are SRP and TEP projects.

Rates and fuel prices change, and this is general information, not financial advice, so confirm costs for any specific home with the utility or supplier before you commit.

When we write up a Round Valley home, we put the heating setup next to the price, because in Eagar and Springerville it's part of what you're buying. If you'd like to know how your own home's wood stove, propane tank or electric heat could affect its value, Arizona's Mountain Home Hunters can walk you through it. Start with an Instant Home Valuation and we'll go from there.