[Lwvcnmtopics] Special NM PRC presentation on Weds afternoon

[George Richmond]

Yesterday afternoon, Cynthia Hall NM PRC Commissioner for District 1, 
convened a special presentation on Grid Modernization.

As you recall, the three elements of getting electric power to your 
house or business are:  Generation (production of power with 
coal/oil/natural gas/uranium or via Renewable Energy such as wind/solar),

Distribution, via a grid or net work of wires to cities/towns/large 
users like the National Labs, then Distribution to the homes/stores/etc 
who use the power.

The process is changing because Renewable Energy will come from many 
sources, including home/business/city roof top solar panels (I have roof 
top solar) and so the metering system, for me has changed to measure 
what I generate and how much of PNM power I use.

Thus the metering system, which is now recorded once a month to show how 
much power was used, or in my case, how much power sold to PNM, will be 
changed from these Dumb meters, to Smart Meters.

Smart meters will be incorporated with time of day power consumption 
which will reflect that the cost of power produced at 300 AM will be 
much lower than the cost of power produced at 300 PM which in the summer 
is heavily impacted by air conditioner use in June, july and August.

Thus home owners, for example, will be offered the chance to reduce 
their power bills by not using, say, washing machines in the afternoon 
and shifting use to evenings/early mornings.

Further, as more people get electric cars, and the Post Office will soon 
move to electric postal vehicles, recharging the batteries will be in 
the evening at lower rates.

The City of Albuquerque will be by 2025 self sufficient in electric 
power, because it will be installing solar panels and batteries.  The 
Grid will have to be more flexible and able to send/receive power, 
depending on the demand, which is the variable.

One of the presenters yesterday was Kit Carson Electric Co Op, one of 20 
co ops in NM, which expects to be 100% renewable power, all solar,  by 
the end of this year and will be adding batteries to provide power in 
the evenings/night.There power back up is Tri State Electric which 
provide power to about 40 Electric co ops in NM, CO, WY and NE.

The co op was an early adopter of smart meters which have helped its 
members hold down or reduce power use and electric bills.

I can provide some slide decks for those who really want more details.

George Richmond

For some reason, I was not able to log on to the regular meeting held in 
the morning as my Zoom connection failed.

-- 
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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