PNM Co. May Raise Rates

By Winthrop Quigley Journal Staff Writer

A PNM Resources subsidiary is seeking to raise rates on a portion of its Texas residential customers’ bills by 16 percent by late next year, the company announced Tuesday.

TNMP, which operates transmission and distribution systems that deliver power generated by other companies, hopes to raise rates on about 183,000 residential and 43,000 commercial customers in West Texas, the Fort Worth area, the area north of Dallas and in the Houston suburbs. The company said that, if approved by the Texas Public Utility Commission, this would be TNMP’s first rate increase in five years.

TNMP’s New Mexico operations are not included in the rate increase request.

In Texas’s unregulated electric power market, TNMP sells transmission and distribution services to 59 companies, known as retail electric providers, that market the electricity to end- users. The cost of TNMP’s service is passed through to end users by the REPs.

TNMP said its portion of the average residential customer’s bill would increase to $35.31, from $30.36 a month.

TNMP said that its portion is about 20 percent of the end- customer’s total electric bill. The company said the rates are designed to achieve an 11.25 percent return on equity.

According to the company, TNMP’s current rates decreased an average of 9.3 percent since the last rate hike five years ago because PNM Resources agreed to a rate reduction when it bought TNMP in 2005. Meanwhile, costs of fuel, utility poles, wire and other construction materials increased an average of 15 percent in 2007 alone, TNMP said.

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