[Lwvcnmtopics] NM Public Regulation Commission Meeting today

[George Richmond]

Not only was it a long meeting day today, the meeting will resume on 
Friday @ 1100 AM.  In fairness, I did log off around 345 PM. And there 
is another meeting Weds morning/

Some highlights:

Southwestern Public Service, which operates in the eastern part of NM 
and the TX Panhandle area, was approved for Grid Modernization and 
Advanced Metering.

As a point of interest, most electric utilities are installing "smart 
meters" which measure electric consumption at the time power is used.  
However, PNM which is the largest electric utility in NM and of course 
in the Albuquerque area,

has meters which only measure total consumption of power.  The 
difference is important as at peak times, such as 2 PM to 700 PM in the 
hot months, power consumption is the highest and it is also the most 
costly power for utilities to produce.

NM Gas has gained approval for a surcharge for the costs incurred during 
the cold spell in February this year.  The costs will be recovered over 
a 30 month period starting in July of this year.

El Paso Electric, which serves the southern part of New Mexico including 
Las Cruces, will be adopting peak power pricing which is from 200 PM to 
600 PM.  The company wants to shift users to wash clothes/dishes/other 
power usage to non peak hours.

Educating consumers will be a challenge.

When the Avangrid purchase of PNM goes through later this year, Avangrid 
should be adding smart meters and moving to time of day pricing as 
well.  It will take a few years, however, for them to do the installation

Also on the calendar was a discussion by Commissioners of summer peak 
reliability for utilities.

El Paso Electric would like to buy nuclear generated electricity to meet 
peak needs, but not shop the market for the best priced power.


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

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


-- 
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus