PNM Counts 13,795 Green Subscribers

With 13,795 voluntary subscribers, PNM’s Sky Blue wind energy program has cracked the top 10 list of green energy programs in the nation.

According to statistics compiled by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Sky Blue program has the eighth largest number of customers in the country among investor-owned utilities.

PNM allows customers to request that up to 90 percent of the electricity they use come from wind power. Residential and small- business customers can purchase 100 kilowatt blocks of power at $1.80 per block more than their regular rate. Larger businesses can pay according to their percentage of use, said PNM spokesman Jeff Buell.

Of Sky Blue’s 13,795 customers, 12,595 are residential users, 1,170 are small-business users and 30 are larger businesses, he added.

To celebrate the ranking and Earth Day, on April 20 PNM took about 200 customers to the 204-megawatt New Mexico Wind Energy Center in House, from which PNM purchases wind energy for the program. The wind farm is not ordinarily open to the public.

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