Electric Co-Op Rates Going Up Next Year

By LEE ROSS Mountain View Telegraph

Beginning in January, Central New Mexico Electric Cooperative customers will see their rates for electricity increased.

Just how much rates will rise is not known yet, according to Birchie West, who is in charge of support services for CNMEC.

The co-op has roughly 17,300 customers, according to General Manager John Wheeler — the majority in the Estancia Valley and southern Santa Fe County.

The co-op held a meeting Dec. 12 that was attended by about 20 people, mostly business owners.

One businessman said he pays five times more than he would be paying Public Service Company of New Mexico if his business was closer to Albuquerque.

"Had I known (the cost of electricity), I would have built right on the Bernalillo County line," said Brent Perkins, an owner of Furniture Connection in Edgewood.

Another business owner said he had to overcome a level of distrust he harbored for CNMEC.

"It’s hard to believe what I’m hearing," said Scott McCall, a Moriarty businessman and hotel owner. "Somewhere down the road somebody has snowed enough people to believe that the co-op is better."

He said the cost of electricity in the Estancia Valley may be enough to keep new businesses out.

"As a developer and a builder, if we want this area to grow," McCall said, "there’s got to be something that puts us in a more competitive league … we’re basically just kicking (businesses) while they’re down."

By the end of the meeting, however, McCall said he had changed his mind about CNMEC.

"I’m coming out of this thinking Central New Mexico is not the guy we need to hate. It’s Tri-State," he said, referring to Tri- State Generation and Transmission Association of Colorado, from which CNMEC buys its electricity.

Wheeler said the prices charged to customers are a direct reflection of the cost of operating the co-op and the prices the co- op pays for electricity.

Wheeler explained that the customers in CNMEC’s service area are more spread out, which adds to infrastructure and other costs. He also said PNM can charge cheaper rates because it gets some of its power from a nuclear plant, which significantly reduces its costs.

Tri-State is not involved with nuclear energy.

The price CNMEC pays for power is not likely to change soon.

CNMEC has a contract with Tri-State until 2050. That contract was recently extended by 10 years.

Wheeler explained that, contract or no contract, Tri-State is the only place the coop can buy power.

"We have no options," he said.

He said the contract was extended because, in order to borrow money from the federal government, electrical cooperatives have to have a "locked in" source of power.

Wheeler said one of the problems he sees with supplying electricity more cheaply in the valley is what he called the "not in my backyard syndrome."

He said New Mexico "claims to be green (environmentally sound) …

"I can’t understand why that biomass plant is having so much trouble," he said, "That’s fairly green."

Wheeler said costs may be mitigated if people change their lifestyles. He urged the business owners to use their power in a different way.

At certain times during the day there is a greater demand on Tri- State’s electricity supply system, called on-peak periods. To supply enough energy to meet those demands, Tri-State charges more for electricity during those periods of high use.

As a result, CNMEC has to pay about $100,000 extra each month in fees for its wholesale electricity supply, according to Matthew Collins, the co-op’s chief operating officer.

Those charges cannot be tacked on to regular customers’ bills. While the wholesaler charges CNMEC peak and off-peak rates, CNMEC can’t charge its customers the same way.

"(The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission) has said no way," Wheeler said.

Tri-State is not regulated by the PRC, but CNMEC is.

As a way to keep prices lower, the co-op allows customers to be on a special rate called a "time of use" rate.

That rate comes with several rules, however.

Customers must use minimal amounts of electricity during peak hours, as measured by a special meter with a timer.

To keep their peak-time use low, these ratepayers use devices like an electric thermal storage unit, which heats insulated bricks during offpeak hours and releases that stored heat as needed during on-peak hours.

The units cost from $1,000 to $4,000 and purchase plans are available on most units.

These customers also change their lifestyles, doing chores that demand larger amounts of electricity, such as laundry, during off- peak hours, according to Dolores Jones, CNMEC’s manager of administrative services.

Although CNMEC claims time of use rates can take about a third off energy bills, if time of use customers go over a certain limit during onpeak hours, starting Jan. 4 they will be charged $20.56 per kilowatt, up from $18.32 charged now.

Currently, 736 customers are on time of use rates, some of them business owners.

CNMEC is proposing to change the peak hours and adjust them twice a year, and asking the customers to handle reprogramming of the ETS units.

"If we can convince you to change your use, that’s the only saving grace we have," Wheeler said.

For more information, call CNMEC at 832-4483.

(c) 2007 Albuquerque Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.