[Lwvcnmtopics] NM PRC report November 4, 2020`

[George Richmond]

I attended the New Mexico Public Regulatory Commission meeting this morning.

Here is some background first:

Our Commissioner for District 1, Cynthia Hall, was re elected for a four 
year term.  However, as Constitutional  Amendment 1 passed,

she will serve only two years.  In the next legislative session, the 
legislature should write enabling legislation, possibly adopting from 
some of the

states that now have appointed commissioners.  An objective of such 
legislation would be to create the criteria for creating a list of 
qualified people to be appointed.

As you can see from the balance of my report, as the nature of the 
utility industry is changing in a major way, different skills, in 
science and engineering, and in business, will be needed, as the

energy industry, in the generation and transmission of electric power, 
will be done much differently than it has been done from the earliest days.

Most meetings begin with approval of agenda, minutes, then routine items 
prpared by the staff of commission approval.

Today's meeting included a brief presentation by Xcel Energy for 
information purposes.  I will summarize after providing a description of 
Xcel:*
*

*Xcel Energy Inc. is a utility holding company based in Minneapolis, 
Minnesota, serving more than 3.3 million electric customers and 1.8 
million natural gas customers in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, North 
Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Texas and New Mexico in 2017.*

*The company discussed their business in NM, which is in the SE part of 
the state, from Clovis south.  The company also operates in parts of TX 
and OK.  When NM had its recent cold spell, the Xcel customers in TX 
lost service from ice storms.
*

*Also, the NM gas/oil business in SE NM is still growing but at a slower 
rate.  Xcel pointed out the need for remote meter reading to save money 
in reading meters.  This practice will come, in time, to New Mexico.  A 
key point is to how
*

*the upgrades are paid for: Front end charges to PNM customers??*

*This presentation was for information purposes an Xcel comes in every 
few months for updates. The company has some renewable generating 
facilities in NM and will add more as it ends its coal generating plants.*

*The next presentation, and the most important, was on the 10 year plan 
for modernizing the Grid System in New Mexico.  The full plan is under 
development and will be completed by next April. A branch of the NM 
State Government, along with University and National Labs, will work on 
the presentation. LWV NM may wish to follow and comment.*

*In the past, a few coal fired plants would generate electric power, 
then use transmission lines, or a Grid, to send the power to 
cities/towns for distribution to businesses/households for their 
electric needs.*

*The future grid will connect many renewable, solar/wind, generating 
sites with the Grid which must be more robust, as some of the power 
generated will come from battery storage and some from renewable 
generators, and could be sold out of state.*

*Certainly California is potential client for power produced in New Mexico.*

*
*

*George Richmond,*

*League Observer to the NM PRC.
*

**
****

-- 
George M. Richmond
152 Juniper Hill Road, NE
Albuquerque, NM 87122-1913

C: 505-280-2105
E: geomrich1 at comcast.net



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