EPEC just filed its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), a twenty-year operations plan) with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (NMPRC). An energy and environmental expert called it a "real Edsel". He wrote that there is "[n]o ramping up of conservation or peak demand control programs. Only 7% renewables in future new plant development plans. No strategies for dealing with innovations in battery storage, electric vehicles, or smart grid control technologies. Two plants are scheduled to operate at 2% of capacity, six plants at 1% or lower capacity, while yet another sits in "reserve" completely unused."
That's there 20-year operations plan for New Mexico.
In El Paso, as you already know, they want to create a new class of ratepayers: Partial Requirements Service, i.e. solar customers and raise their rates by 24%. It's bad enough that they want to sock it to the rest of us for a 12% increase. But 24%? Wow!
Is EPEC in El Paso doing much more on renewables? No.
Moreover, Texas law pays for Conservation and Demand reduction through an EECRF, Energy Efficiency Cost Recovery Factor. It allows an electrical utility to recover costs for providing programs for customers to become more energy efficient. They want to raise our rates but they do not want to provide funding to help you and me lower our bills.
All of this sounds like a company that wants to sell you electricity at a high rate but doesn't want to encourage energy efficiency or clean, renewable energy.
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