[Lwvcnmtopics] NM Public Regulation Commission meeting

[George Richmond]

The Wednesday meeting was spent largely on the request of Zia Gas 
Company getting NM PRC approval on how to bill its customers for the 
February severe weather which produced a huge spike in gas prices.  As 
you may recall, NM Gas utilities charge for gas at cost and do not make 
a profit on gas.  Because of the cold weather, the price of gas spiked 
around 100 X normal price.  The issue at hand was whether to recover 
costs in 30 or 60 months. Also, can Zia Gas collect the cost of interest 
on their loan from their bank to pay their gas bill.

As Zia Gas will send out June bills  next week, it is important to get a 
NM PRC ruling tomorrow, as Monday is a holiday.

Not all Zia Gas clients used gas in February as some, largely in Dona 
Anna County, use gas for pulling water to irrigate crops and this gas 
use is from March to September.  Thus only clients who used gas in 
February will be charged over a time period.

New Mexico has about 20 electric co ops who buy power to resell to their 
customers.  Tri State is the major power generator.  As you all know, 
PNM is in the midst of dropping coal fired plants for electricity from 
renewable sources.

So, I thought the comment from Tri State would be of interest. Briefly, 
not only are they ahead in making the change, but their rates are coming 
down!!!


  A MESSAGE FROM DUANE HIGHLEY, CEO


We have reached several significant milestones that advance our 
Responsible Energy Plan goals to be cleaner, more affordable and more 
flexible for our members.*The first of eight projects to add more than 
1,000 megawatts of renewable resources by 2024 (when 50% of the energy 
consumed in our co-op family will be from clean energy) achieved 
commercial operations in April.* In keeping with our goal to reduce 
wholesale rates to our members,*we announced at the end of April a 4 
percent wholesale rate reduction over the next two years*. With our rate 
wholesale decrease, some members have already announced their own retail 
rate decrease or increased capital credit refunds. We also completed the 
nomination process for our first-ever "open season," when our 
members could express their interest in self-supplying up to 50% of 
their power requirements. As we move through Tri-State’s rapid 
transformation, a recent ratings report from Moody's Investors Service 
reaffirmed both our investment grade ratings and stable outlook.


Today's ABQ Journal has an article on a recent presentation by PNM and 
Avangrid about their proposed merger which should be approved by year end.

If you do not get the paper, you can read it from the ABQ Journal web site.

George Richmond

-- 
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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