[Lwvcnmtopics] NM PRC meeting yesterday

[George Richmond]

THIS MEETING HAS GREAT SIGNIFICANCE TO ANY ONE WHO USES ELECTRIC POWER 
OR NATURAL GAS.

At 143 PM the meeting adjourned, but I want to share much critical news 
on events and developments which will continue for some time.

BACKGROUND:  During Feb 2011, NM suffered cold weather which resulted in 
NM Gas not being able to serve all its customers so the company dropped 
service which in utility speak is "load shedding" to people out of ABQ, 
but in rural areas.  In cold weather this caused much hardship, so the 
company made major efforts to have diversified gas sources and made 
major capital investments to have more storage and ability to supply all 
customers.

NM Gas and three electric companies and the Managers of the Western Grid 
...14 western states with electric companies presented to the NM PRC 
today about the period Feb 11-18 when NM suffered some cold, not as bad 
as TX, but there were problems.

 From the Gas view, NM Gas now buys gas from TX, NM and CO and has more 
storage as well.  Further, they were aware of the pending cold weather 
and began buying gas before the cold spell hit. However, they needed 
more gas on Feb 14 particularly, and went to the spot market where they 
paid $250/MCF as compared with $2.50/MCF.  Now as a large company, they 
can pay for the gas when the bill is due next month.  However, the gas 
costs are passed through to the customer and NM Gas will meet with the 
NM PRC shortly to work out how that will be done.  Over time I hope.  
The NM Attorney General is looking in to the gas price gouging but such 
an investigation will take time.

For Zia Gas, a very small NM gas company with 49,000 customers of which 
a large number are in Las Vegas, they suffered the same. For them, as 
they put it:  In the week Feb 11-18. their gas bill was $ 18 M, and for 
the whole year 2020, their bill was $10 M. But, no customer service 
curtailments, as was the case for NM Gas.

Now, let move to Electric Power.

Western Electric Coordinating Council, who manage the Western Grid in 
the US spoke.  (There are three grids or transmission systems in the US, 
established by Federal Law, Eastern, Western and TX) TX had major 
problems and still have electric outages. Further, the state's Governor 
Gregg Abbott will speak tonight @ 500 PM MST.  It will be on the news 
tomorrow.)

The purpose of the Grids is in very general terms, is to help a utility 
with a large demand for power, help provide the service and not drop or 
shed customers.  We have all read about the fires in CA and the power 
problems there.  if the electric companies in other states had not 
supplied power the problem would have been much worse...and I feel that 
we all can agree that electric power, supplied on demand, is vital to all.

The other presenters were Southwestern Public Service, which operates in 
West TX and parts of NM, in the Clovis area, PNM, and El Paso Electric 
which serves El Paso, parts of SW TX And some of Southern NM.

All companies were able to supply clients with no dropping of services.  
In some cases high winds took down power lines, but these were repaired 
in the normal manner and the long losses of service common to TX were 
not present.

In the case of SPS, this company is a part of the Xcel company which 
operates in a number of states and is part of both the Eastern and 
Western power grids.  Xcel was able to buy power, some of which went to 
TX and NM.  While their wind turbines are insulated, they did have some 
outages.

ALL companies have generating stations powered by natural gas, and you 
guessed it, the prices paid on Feb 14/15 were very high. Again the NM AG 
is investigating the price gouging, which happened, and in time we will 
get a report.

Another vital point, made by all presenters, and NM PRC is:

How much spare capacity should there be?

How and who pays for it?

I concur that climate extremes/storms will be more common...but How much 
insurance/protection is needed?

Over time, the NM PRC will address these points...and our bills will go 
up.  Another issue will be cutting off service to people who can not 
pay. As NM has a number of poor people, this will be an issue.

I had never imagined that electric power was so complicated, but there 
is much more than just turning on the overhead light in the kitchen to 
start the day.

George Richmond,

Observer,NM Public Regulation Commission, for the League of Women Voters 
Central New Mexico

-- 
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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