OPINION: Newly reconstituted PRC has had many accomplishments

I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the first two years of the appointed New Mexico Public Regulation Commission and my role as an appointed commissioner for these two years.

The “new PRC” has many accomplishments. Some of those are as follows:

• Adopting a reliability rule, which for the first time requires our investor-owned electric utilities — Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM), Southwestern Public Service Company, and El Paso Electric Company — to submit electric distribution network reliability data.
• Adopting rules for the Energy Transition Act, which defines how PNM’s carbon emissions level will be calculated for the purposes of compliance with the Energy Transition Act.
• Overseeing the integrated resource plans of two utilities, PNM and SPS, under a new PRC rule that has expanded transparency and public participation provisions.
• Approving PNM’s and SPS’ grid modernization applications, which focused on automated, or “smart,” meters and associated infrastructure. As El Paso Electric’s application was approved in 2022, all three electric utilities are now in various stages of smart meter installation.
• A commission final decision on whether PNM was prudent in deciding to continue its participation in the Four Corners Power Plant in October 2013, when the last analysis of alternatives they had performed was in May 2012. The commission decided that PNM’s actions were not prudent and ordered a write-down of the company’s undepreciated investment in the plant by one-third, resulting in ratepayer savings for capital repayments of $85 million.
• A commission final decision that PNM must return funds collected for a Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station lease that expired at the end of 2022, but was in rates for all of 2023.
• Approving the settlement between PNM and various intervenors that required PNM to return funds collected for the San Juan Generating Station between the time of abandonment and the end of 2023, given that the plant was no longer used and useful to ratepayers, but remained in rates. This amounted to a $115 million refund to ratepayers that was returned through monthly bill credits over a year.
• Holding a series of workshops to explore the rapidly evolving landscape around Western power markets and the analysis our two utilities in the Western power grid, PNM and EPE, were conducting regarding joining one of these markets.

As one of the three appointed commissioners in this “new PRC” and having served since January 2023, I was an integral part of these decisions and accomplishments.

Not mentioned in the Jan. 2 Journal article about the new PRC commissioner appointment, “Former Republican Sen. Nibert appointed to PRC,” is that I had applied for reappointment for a full six-year term.

Had I been chosen, my focus would have been on navigating the energy transition while keeping rates reasonable. This outcome is not a given. The current method of net metering that allows distributed solar customers to receive full retail rate credit for power sent back to the grid entails a subsidy from those without solar, will result in ever-increasing rates as solar adoption increases, and should be reviewed.

I also question the proposition that utilities should invest to accommodate an unlimited amount of distributed solar — with those investments paid for by all customers. Progress must be made by the investor-owned utilities in installing dispatchable generation capable of carbon-free generation.

I am proud of my service to the state of New Mexico and appreciate the opportunity I was given to serve as PRC Commissioner for the last two years.

James Ellison, of Cedar Crest, is a former commissioner of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission.