Solar-Power Incentives — Bah, Humbug!
by Chuck Ring (GadAbout-BlogAlot ©2008)Â
Quote Freely From the Article — Leave The Pseudonym Alone
Of course, I’m not against incentives for solar or wind power. Let me explain. The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC) has just approved regulations that requires Public Service Company of New Mexico (PSC) to pay commercial customers 15 cents for ever solar-generated kilowatt used by its commercial customers. This is in addition to a 13 cent scheme for residential customers. The PRC stopped short or refused to require PSC to pay for any excess power generated by the company’s customers. Whether this refusal is good for the customer and PSC is anyone’s guess, but one reason given by the PRC is that the PRC didn’t want the customers to become mini-utilities or words to that effect. On balance all the forgoing seems great for PSC’s customers and it allows PSC to comply with regulations that require it to be more green.Â
Here’s the itch; customers (so-called owners) of the many electric cooperatives operating in New Mexico do not enjoy the same type of credits that PSC customers enjoy, and in the case of Central New Mexico Electric (CNME), pay substantially more per kilowatt hour consumed than do customers of PSC. In fact, according to this informational websiteÂ
Is it time for New Mexico electric cooperative customers to petition the PRC to heal this prejudicial situation and require the cooperatives to credit its customers, whether commercial or residential, for the power generated by the customers? I can’t lead the effort, but I’ll certainly join it and publicize any results or initiatives from the efforts.
3 Responses “Solar-Power Incentives — Bah, Humbug!”
Interesting (sigh) how so many of these programs spun to omit added costs. Seems to me that CNME serving a significant lower (& fixed) income rural population should try harder to cut us a break. Do you have or can you point me to figures on the PSC/CNME rate differences?
I have also been wondering why wind harvesting operation being built near Pueblo CO will be hiring so many locals and the NM projects hardly any at all.
Vanessa, agreed on all points. Here’s a couple of Urls with information I believe will be helpful:
http://www.pnm.com/regulatory/pdf_electricity/schedule_1_a.pdf
http://www.cnmec.org/
after you get the CNMEC’s site click on Products and Services and then Rates.
You can also google and get a lot of information on both of their rate filings.
Hope this helps.
Chuck
I’ve checked the CNMEC web site and found no policies on net metering or purchasing renewable power from members. I’ve sent e-mails to the CEO and COO of CNMEC (just couldn’t resist the acronym soup) requesting the policies, but haven’t heard back yet. In all fairness, it’s the holiday season and they may not have seen the messages yet. CNMEC is a member of Tri-State Generation and Transmission. According to this article:
It’s probably a matter of opinion as to whether this is harsher than no policy at all. Regardless: We are all members, and if we don’t like the way the utility is being run, we have two options – vote in directors who will do things differently, or live with things the way we are. CNMEC annual meetings are notoriously poorly attended, and unless somebody is willing to step up to the plate and run, and a bunch of people are willing to vote for that person, things will continue as they are.