[Lwvcnmtopics] Robert Lundin Presentation Yesterday

George Richmond geomrich1 at comcast.net
Thu Sep 9 13:53:00 MDT 2021


As you all know, I am Observer for the League of Women Voters Central 
New Mexico for the NM PRC and I was on your call yesterday.

As a point of information, when my wife and I moved to our current house 
in October 2013, we installed solar panel electric service through 
Affordable Solar, and with approval of the Bernalillo County Building 
Department, which made sure our roof could handle the load, and finally, 
PNM, who did drag their feet in approving the system.

That said, I have to share some observations with you, as the three 
IOU's are not totally forthcoming...and Mr. Lundin , in his presentation 
on Wednesday,should have said so.

A)  "Smart Meters"

I think we all can agree that the current electric meters, at least the 
one I have from PNM, just measure consumption but to measure time of day 
use of electric power use will require new meters.

Mr. Lundin gave the views of PNM, EPE or JP Morgan, and SPS or Xcel, as 
if Smart Meters are there, just lying on the ground and will soon be 
installed by the "Meter Installation Fairy who is related to the Tooth 
Fairy.

I have been using PNM power for 23 years now and recall that the company 
wanted to install Smart Meters but could not get the PRC to approve a 
plan that would front end all costs on Ratepayers, so they backed off 
their plan.

So, to get to the point, installing Smart Meters must be done for ALL 
power users before the system starts and to the cost has to be paid for, 
the the rate payers, through higher rates, will pay back the utility, or 
some system WHICH HAS BEEN APPROVED BY THE PRC. Maybe you three will not 
be on the new three person appointed PRC Commission system, but this 
email will be in the PRC files.

B) Time of Day Pricing.

I have learned enough about electric power generation to know that for 
about 120 or so days of the year, there is a very large power demand in 
the afternoon for air conditioning and so for about four or so hours for 
those days, electric power companies are probably using their most 
costly system of power generation. So to shift the demand to the 
shoulder or off peak hours, their rates are likely to be highest in 
those hours and drop off with the lowest rates, say 900 PM to 500 AM, 
which should be the times when people with electric vehicles, not many 
today, but many more over time, should be recharging their vehicles.

And so I concur, the rates for power use should vary, with the actual 
costs of generation,  and rate payers should pay the highest rates at 
peak usage time and with a variable, and public rate schedule.

Then to get to the point, people/organizations and governments with 
solar panels should be reselling their surplus power on a variable 
selling schedule to PNM, SPS and EPE....because it is FAIR.

So please add this email to the files for your cases:  SPS 
(20-00150-UT). PSNM )20-00237-UT) and EPE (20-00241-UT)

I recognize that you can ignore me, but the City of Albuquerque has 
solar panels at their airport, Walmart has many stores with solar 
panels, and finally, Facebook has a huge solar farm and will make sure 
they get time of day pricing when PNM resells their surplus power...and 
any deal with PNM or Avangrid and Face Book have to be made public.

Now if I was not paying full attention to the presentation, let me know, 
but your Staff and OGC should spend some time on these three cases.

Best regards,

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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