PNM ramps up customer assistance in heatwave

Public Service Co. of New Mexico customers could see red-hot spikes on their electric bills starting this month, thanks to the record heatwave that has engulfed the West since early July.

But PNM is splashing some cold water on the pain with $500,000 in new shareholder contributions to relief funds for struggling ratepayers.

The funds include $250,000 for a new, short-term “Summer Heat Bill Relief Fund” that will grant $150 in one-time funding for low- and moderate-income customers through Sept. 30, the company announced Tuesday afternoon.

Shareholders are also contributing an additional $250,000 to the existing “Good Neighbor Fund” for low-income ratepayers, said Ebony Vizcaino, PNM’s low-income outreach program manager.

“The new summer help fund is specifically to address the summer heatwave we’ve been experiencing,” Vizcaino told the Journal. “That will provide one-time assistance of $150, although the fund has an end date of Sept. 30. Shareholders also added additional funding to our long-standing Good Neighbor program.”

The heatwave sent customer electric consumption soaring in July, as residential and commercial consumers ramped up their air conditioning to beat the heat.

PNM reached a new peak-load record two times on July 17 and 18, when consumer demand on the grid reached 2,131 megawatts on both days, said PNM Principal Generation Advisor Tom Fallgren. That’s up from a previous record of 2,071 MW in July 2022.

“We hit 2,131 MW on both July 17 and 18, which is 60 MW more than we ever saw before,” Fallgren told the Journal. “In fact, on July 18th, we were trending toward an even higher early-evening peak, but at 4:30 pm, a cloud cover came in and kind of reduced the load. Otherwise, we would have seen another new record.”

PNM is expecting near 100-degree weather again next week, although the forecast for the rest of August is projected only slightly above normal.

“We’re not expecting more of the severe temperatures that we saw in July,” Fallgren said.

Fortunately, PNM customers haven’t faced any heat-related blackouts or brownouts, since the utility managed to lock-in advance wholesale energy contracts from out-of-state suppliers since last year to prepare for this summer.

“We contracted for 460 MW of firm, long-term energy resources,” Fallgren said. “We signed a variety of contracts with energy suppliers, including a fair number from hydroelectric generation in the Pacific Northwest.”

Heavy snowfall in the Northwest last winter contributed to firm hydroelectric capacity there, creating more energy supply opportunities for PNM and utilities in other states to meet summer demand, Fallgren said.

That hydroelectric availability also alleviated pressure on California utilities to meet demand, which, in turn, reduced this summer’s competition among western states to line up sufficient energy resources.

“Northwest hydro generation has made a big difference this year compared with summer 2022,” Fallgren said. “We’ve been in better condition across the west, even though most utilities in the western states also set new peak-demand levels this summer.”

Last summer, PNM avoided potential blackouts during extreme heat by prolonging operations at the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station near Farmington, which the utility permanently shut down after the summer ended.

But the company is still struggling to install all the solar generation and backup battery power that’s budgeted to replace San Juan, and to make up for the loss of two leases for PNM energy consumption from the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona.

All the replacement power, however, is scheduled to be online by spring 2024, alleviating pressure from peak summer demand next year.

Meanwhile, PNM’s new funding assistance and other support programs can at least help the most-vulnerable residential consumers get through the rest of this summer.

The summer help fund is more flexible than PNM’s existing Good Neighbor Fund, allowing consumers with household income up to 250% above the federal poverty level to qualify for assistance, Vizcaino said. And applicants don’t have to be past due on their bills to receive funding.

“The $150 is a one-time, flat credit for those who qualify,” Vizcaino said. “That means, if a customer’s bill is, say, $100 or less in August, the balance is carried forward as a credit on the next PNM bill.”

In contrast, Good Neighbor assistance is limited to low-income households up to 150% of the poverty level, and applicants do have to be past due on bills to access it.

Ratepayers who are struggling but don’t qualify for assistance from either fund can access other support programs, including “budget billing” and PNM’s “more time to pay” program, said PNM spokesman Ray Sandoval.

With budget billing, this month’s bill can be averaged out into low-monthly payments over the next 12 months, although to do that, the customer must be up to date on their bill payments Sandoval said. And, with the bill extension program, consumers can get up to an extra three months to pay their bill.

For more information or to apply for a PNM support program, visit PNM.com/help.