By Hudson Sangree
New Mexico’s largest utility has requested state regulators’ permission to join the Western Energy Imbalance Market, officials announced Wednesday.
Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) has applied to join the EIM by 2021, Mark Rothleder, the EIM’s vice president of market quality and renewable integration, told the market’s Governing Body during its meeting in Denver.
PNM, which serves about 510,000 electricity customers in the state, still needs approval from the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, Rothleder said.
The Governing Body greeted the announcement as good news. If PNM’s request to join the EIM is approved, it could give California and other states access to New Mexico’s wind and solar resources, and New Mexico could draw on California’s solar output during peak usage hours.
Part of the EIM’s mission is to trade renewable energy between states that generate and use it at different times.
California’s solar energy output reaches its peak midday, during a time of low in-state consumption, while solar farms in New Mexico and Arizona come online earlier, some in time to meet California’s high morning demand for electricity. Wind farms in New Mexico and Wyoming ramp up later in the day, when Californians get home and turn on their lights and TVs.
PNM owns or jointly owns 3,200 miles of electric transmission. It owns, leases or has power purchase agreements for about 2,580 MW of generation, dominated by gas (33%), coal (30%) and nuclear (16%). Its wind capacity totals 300 MW (12%) with solar at 117 MW (5%).
“Having cost-effective electricity available to immediately back up [intermittent] renewable energy in real time supports reliability and also ensures our renewables are used to their fullest potential,” Thomas Fallgren, PNM’s vice president of generation, told the Associated Press on Wednesday.
CAISO started the EIM in 2014, and its members have realized more than $400 million in benefits, including more than $71 million during the second quarter of 2018. (See EIM Benefits Surge to $71.2M in Q2.)
PNM would be the first New Mexico utility to join the EIM.
Major utilities in Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming are already members. Idaho Power and Powerex joined this year.
With Gov. Jerry Brown’s support, CAISO also is pushing to become an RTO for the Western states. A bill to advance the change, AB 813, is pending in the legislature, but its fate is uncertain. It must be delivered to Brown before lawmakers end their current session Aug. 31. (See CAISO Regionalization Bill Cast on Uncertain Course.)