TITLE
17 PUBLIC UTILITIES AND
UTILITY SERVICES
CHAPTER
9 ELECTRIC SERVICES
PART
572 RENEWABLE
ENERGY FOR ELECTRIC UTILITIES
17.9.572.1 ISSUING AGENCY: New Mexico Public
Regulation Commission.
[17.9.572.1 NMAC - Rp. 17.9.572.1 NMAC, 5-31-13]
17.9.572.2 SCOPE:
A. All
electric public utilities are subject to 17.9.572.1 through 17.9.572.21 NMAC.
B. Rural
electric distribution cooperatives are subject to 17.9.572.1 through
17.9.572.6, 17.9.572.17, 17.9.572.21, 17.9.572.22,
and 17.9.572.23 NMAC.
[17.9.572.2 NMAC - Rp, 17.9.572.2 NMAC, 5-31-13]
17.9.572.3 STATUTORY AUTHORITY: Sections 62-15-34,
62-15-36, 62-16-7, 62-16-8 and 62-16-9 NMSA 1978.
[17.9.572.3 NMAC - Rp, 17.9.572.3 NMAC, 5-31-13]
17.9.572.4 DURATION: Permanent.
[17.9.572.4 NMAC - Rp, 17.9.572.4 NMAC, 5-31-13]
17.9.572.5 EFFECTIVE DATE: May 31, 2013, unless
a later date is cited at the end of a section.
[17.9.572.5 NMAC - Rp, 17.9.572.5 NMAC, 5-31-13]
17.9.572.6 OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this
rule is to implement the Renewable Energy Act Section 62-16-1, et seq. NMSA
1978, and to bring significant economic development and environmental benefits
to New Mexico.
[17.9.572.6 NMAC - Rp, 17.9.572.6 NMAC, 5-31-13]
17.9.572.7 DEFINITIONS: Unless otherwise
specified, as used in this rule:
A. procure means to generate or purchase renewable energy
or to purchase renewable energy certificates or to commit to generate or
purchase renewable energy or to commit to purchase renewable energy
certificates;
B. public
utility means an entity certified by the commission to provide retail
electric service in New Mexico pursuant to the Public Utility Act but does not
include rural electric cooperatives;
C. reasonable
cost threshold (RCT) means the cost level established by the commission
above which a public utility shall not be required to add renewable energy to
its electric energy supply portfolio pursuant to the renewable portfolio
standard;
D. renewable
energy means electrical energy generated by means of a low or zero
emissions generation technology with substantial long-term production potential
and generated by use of renewable energy resources that may include solar,
wind, hydropower resources brought into service after July 1, 2007, geothermal,
fuel cells that are not fossil fueled and biomass resources; biomass resources
are fuels, such as agriculture or animal waste, small diameter timber, salt
cedar and other phreatophyte or woody vegetation
removed from river basins or watersheds in New Mexico, landfill gas and
anaerobically digested waste biomass; renewable energy does not include fossil
fuel or nuclear energy;
E. renewable
energy certificate (REC) means a document
evidencing that the enumerated renewable energy kilowatt-hours have been generated
from a renewable energy generating facility, and shall represent all of the
environmental attributes associated with the generation of renewable energy;
F. renewable
portfolio standard (RPS) means the percentage of retail energy sales by a
public utility to electric consumers in New Mexico that is required to be
supplied by renewable energy;
G. fully
diversified renewable energy portfolio means one in which no less than 30%
of the renewable portfolio standard requirement is met using wind energy, no
less than 20% is met using solar energy, no less than 5% is met using one or
more of the other renewable energy technologies, as defined by this section; in
a fully diversified renewable energy portfolio, no less than the following
percentages are met through distributed generation:
(1) no less than
1 ½% for plan years 2011 through 2014; and
(2) no less than
3% beginning in plan year 2015;
H. emissions
means all emissions regulated by state or federal authorities, including but
not limited to all criteria pollutants and hazardous air pollutants, plus
mercury and carbon dioxide (CO2);
I. distributed
generation means electric generation sited at a customer’s premises,
providing electric energy to the customer load at that site or providing
electric energy to a public utility or a rural electric distribution
cooperative for use by multiple customers in one or more contiguous
distribution substation service areas;
J. plan
year means the calendar year for which approval is being sought;
K. plan
year total revenues means plan year projected total retail revenues
including the sum of:
(1) plan year total retail energy sales multiplied by the
company’s approved base fuel and non-base fuel retail rates by rate class;
(2) projected
fuel clause revenues; and
(3) all
projected rider revenues, not including:
(a)
projected plan year renewable portfolio revenue
requirements, and
(b) projected undergrounding rider contributions in aid of
construction;
L. plan
year total retail energy sales means weather adjusted retail energy sales
in kWh projected for the plan year adjusted for projected energy efficiency
reductions based on approved energy efficiency and load management programs in
effect at the time of the filing, less:
(1) energy
sales to large customers that qualify under Section 62-16-4A (2) NMSA 1978; and
(2) energy
sales to customers exempted pursuant to Section 62-16-4A (3) NMSA 1978;
M. large customer adjustment means the
specific procurement requirements for nongovernmental customers at a single location
or facility, regardless of the number of meters at that location or facility,
with consumption exceeding 10 million kilowatt-hours per year, the procurement
of renewable energy will be limited to the lower of two percent of that
customer's annual electric charges or $99,000; after January 1, 2012, the
$99,000 limit is adjusted for inflation by the amount of the cumulative
increase change in the consumer price index, urban, all items (CPI-U) published
by the bureau of labor statistics between January 1, 2011 and January 1 of the
procurement plan year;
N. political
subdivision of the state means a division of the state made by proper
authorities thereof, acting within their constitutional powers, for purpose of
carrying out a portion of those functions of the state which by long usage and
inherent necessities of government have always been regarded as public.
[17.9.572.7 NMAC - Rp, 17.9.572.7 NMAC, 5-31-13]
17.9.572.8 LIBERAL CONSTRUCTION: This rule shall be
liberally construed to carry out its intended purposes. If any provision of this rule, or the
application thereof to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the
remainder of the rule, or the application of such provision to other persons or
circumstances, shall not be affected thereby.
[17.9.572.8 NMAC - Rp, 17.9.572.8 NMAC, 5-31-13]
17.9.572.9 RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER COMMISSION
RULES:
Unless otherwise specified, this rule does not supersede any other rule
of the commission but supplements rules applying to public utilities.
[17.9.572.9 NMAC - Rp, 17.9.572.9 NMAC, 5-31-13]
17.9.572.10 RENEWABLE PORTFOLIO STANDARD:
A. Each
public utility must develop an annual Renewable Energy Act plan to comply with
the renewable portfolio standard. Renewable energy resources that are in a public
utility’s electric energy supply portfolio on July 1, 2004 shall be counted in
determining compliance with this rule.
However, renewable energy sold to customers through a premium-priced or
a voluntary renewable energy tariff shall not be counted in determining
compliance with this rule. Other factors
being equal, preference shall be given to renewable energy generated in New
Mexico.
B. The
renewable portfolio standard shall consist of:
(1) no less than 10% for each plan year from 2011 through 2014
of the utility’s plan year total retail energy sales;
(2) no less than 15%
for each plan year from 2015 through 2019 of the utility’s plan year total
retail energy sales; and
(3) no less than 20% for plan year 2020 and thereafter of the
utility’s plan year total retail energy sales.
[17.9.572.10 NMAC - Rp, 17.9.572.10 NMAC, 5-31-13]
17.9.572.11 DIVERSIFICATION REQUIREMENTS FOR
PORTFOLIOS:
Each public utility must meet its renewable portfolio standard
requirements using a diversified portfolio of resources, taking into
consideration the overall reliability, availability, dispatch flexibility and
cost of the various renewable resources as follows:
A. Except
as provided in this section, public utility annual Renewable Energy Act plans
shall be designed to achieve a fully diversified renewable energy portfolio no
later than January 1, 2011.
B. Public
utilities shall not be required to provide a fully diversified renewable
portfolio when doing so would conflict with reasonable cost thresholds
established by the commission or when full diversification is prevented by
technical constraints or limitations.
For the purposes of this section, technical constraints or limitations
include, but are not limited to, transmission constraints, limitations on
system integration, limited availability of particular renewable resources, and
limitations on system reliability, but shall not include constraints or
limitations that the public utility is capable of overcoming at reasonable cost
or effort. Notwithstanding the
provisions of this Subsection B excusing the failure by a public utility to
meet the requirement to provide a fully diversified renewable energy portfolio,
each public utility must meet its overall renewable portfolio standard.
C. In
any year for which a public utility’s annual Renewable Energy Act plan does not
provide for a fully diversified portfolio, the public utility shall describe
its plan for achieving a fully diversified portfolio in a timely manner.
D. Renewable
energy certificates used to meet the distributed generation diversity
requirement may not also be used to meet a resource-specific diversity
requirement.
[17.9.572.11 NMAC - Rp, 17.9.572.14 NMAC, 5-31-13]
17.9.572.12 REASONABLE COST THRESHOLD: The reasonable cost
threshold is a customer protection mechanism that limits the customer bill
impact resulting from annual Renewable Energy Act plans as measured by plan
year revenue requirements. A public
utility shall calculate the large customer adjustment consistent with the
methodology for the reasonable cost threshold.
A. A
public utility shall not be required to add renewable energy to its electric
energy portfolio in any plan year, pursuant to the renewable portfolio standard,
where the annual renewable energy plan revenue requirement is above the
reasonable cost threshold established by the commission pursuant to Subsection
B of this section.
B. The
reasonable cost threshold in any plan year is 3% of plan year total revenues,
beginning in 2013.
C. As
changing circumstances warrant, and after notice and hearing, the commission
may prospectively modify the reasonable cost threshold. In modifying the reasonable cost threshold,
the commission will take into account:
(1) the price of renewable energy at the point of sale to the
public utility;
(2) transmission and interconnection costs required for the
delivery of renewable energy to retail customers;
(3) the impact of the
cost for renewable energy on retail customer rates;
(4) overall
diversity, reliability, availability, dispatch flexibility, cost per
kilowatt-hour and life cycle cost on a net present value basis of renewable energy
resources available from suppliers; and
(5) other factors, including public benefits, the commission
deems relevant.
D. In
any given year, if the cost to procure renewable energy is greater than the
reasonable cost threshold, a public utility will not be required to incur that
cost or to procure that resource, provided that the condition excusing
performance under the renewable portfolio standard in any given year will not
operate to delay the annual increases in the renewable portfolio standard in
subsequent years. A public utility that
believes its procurement will exceed the reasonable cost threshold shall file
with the commission a request for waiver of the renewable portfolio standard
for the applicable plan year. The request
shall explain in detail why the public utility cannot procure resources at a
cost less than the reasonable cost threshold and shall include an explanation
and evidence of all efforts the public utility undertook to procure resources
at a cost within the reasonable cost threshold. Waiver requests shall be deemed
granted if not acted upon 60 days.
[17.9.572.12 NMAC - Rp, 17.9.572.11 NMAC, 5-31-13]
17.9.572.13 RESOURCE SELECTION:
A. The utility
shall determine all commercially available resources or purchases of renewable
energy certificates available to the utility, either by ownership or by
contract, for the procurement plan year that will satisfy the RPS and the
diversity requirements.
B. Of the resources or REC purchases identified
above, the company shall use the net present value methodology to identify the
most cost effective additional or new renewable resource(s) necessary and
available to satisfy both the annual renewable portfolio standard and the
diversity requirements.
C. In the case that the resources
required are not required to satisfy diversity requirements those resources
must represent the most cost effective option available.
[17.9.572.13 NMAC - Rp, 17.9.572.12 NMAC, 5-31-13]
17.9.572.14 ANNUAL RENEWABLE ENERGY ACT PLAN: An annual Renewable
Energy Act plan shall include plan year and next plan year data. The plan year shall be presented for
commission approval and the next plan year shall be presented for informational
purposes.
A. On
or before July 1 of each year, each public utility must file with the
commission an annual Renewable Energy Act plan.
The
filing schedule shall be staggered, each of the investor owned utility filings
shall occur one month apart, the last filing to be made July 1 of each year. The utilities shall file alphabetically each
year (El Paso electric shall file May 1; public service company of New Mexico
shall file June 1; and southwestern public service company shall file July 1
each year).
B. The
annual Renewable Energy Act plan is to include:
(1) testimony and exhibits providing a full explanation of the
utility’s determination of the plan year and next plan year renewable portfolio
standard and reasonable cost threshold;
(2) the cost of
procurement in the plan year and the next plan year for all new renewable
energy resources required to comply with the renewable portfolio standard
selected by the utility pursuant to Section 13 of this rule;
(3) the amount of renewable energy the public utility plans to
provide in the plan year and the next plan year required to comply with the
renewable portfolio standard;
(4) testimony and exhibits demonstrating how the cost and amount
specified in Paragraphs (2) and (3) of this subsection were determined;
(5) testimony and
exhibits demonstrating the plan year and next plan year procurement amounts and
costs based on revenue requirements expected to be recovered by the utility;
(6) testimony and
exhibits demonstrating the plan year and next plan year procurement amounts and
costs if complying with a fully
diversified renewable portfolio standard is limited by the reasonable cost
threshold;
(7) testimony and
exhibits demonstrating the plan year and next plan year procurement amounts and
costs based on revenue requirements expected to be recovered by the utility if
limited by the reasonable cost threshold;
(8) testimony and
exhibits that demonstrate that the proposed procurement is reasonable as to its
terms and conditions considering price, costs of interconnection and
transmission, availability, dispatchability,
renewable energy certificate values and portfolio diversification requirements;
(9) testimony and exhibits regarding the amount and impact of
renewable energy that can be added in any given year without adding generating
resources for load following or system regulation purposes;
(10) testimony and exhibits demonstrating that the portfolio
procurement plan is consistent with the integrated resource plan and explaining
any material differences; and
(11) demonstration that the plan is otherwise in the public
interest.
C. Plan year revenue requirements: For RCT purposes, the plan year
revenue requirements shall reflect rate impacts on customer bills and shall be determined by applying a traditional revenue
requirements impact approach for all resources, including regulatory assets
authorized in prior plan years, used to satisfy the renewable portfolio
standard and shall not include normalizations, annualizations
and out of period adjustments.
(1) Revenue requirement adjustments shall only
include avoided fuel and purchased power costs, environmental credits pursuant
to compliance rules in effect during the plan year, and costs for capacity,
transmission, or distribution that can be shown to result in actual reductions
in costs to ratepayers.
(2) Avoided fuel costs
are expected or modeled fuel savings that result from the procurement of
renewable resources in the plan years.
D. A public
utility shall serve notice and a copy of its annual renewable energy plan
filing by first class mail on renewable resource providers requesting such
notice from the commission, the New Mexico attorney general, and the intervenors in the public utility’s most recent rate case. A public utility shall also post on its
website the most recent and the pending annual Renewable Energy Act plans.
[17.9.572.14 NMAC - Rp, 17.9.572.16 NMAC, 5-31-13]
17.9.572.15 COST RECOVERY FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY:
A. A
public utility shall recover the reasonable costs of complying with this rule
through the rate making process, including its reasonable interconnection and
transmission costs and other costs attributable to acquisition and delivery of
renewable energy to retail New Mexico customers.
B. Costs
that are consistent with commission-approved annual Renewable Energy Act plans
are deemed to be reasonable.
C. A
public utility that is permitted to defer the recovery of renewable energy costs
pursuant to commission order may, through the ratemaking process, recover from
customers that are not subject to the rate impact limitations of Sections
62-16-4A(2) and 62-16-4A(3) NMSA 1978 the cumulative sum of those deferred
amounts, plus a carrying charge on those amounts.
D. For
customers that are subject to the rate impact limitations of Section
62-16-4A(2) NMSA 1978, a public utility may, through the ratemaking process,
recover from those customers the cumulative sum of those Section 62-16-4A(2)
NMSA 1978 limited deferred amounts, plus carrying charges on those amounts.
E. Any renewable energy procurement
costs recovered through the utility’s fuel clause shall be separately
identified in its monthly and annual fuel and purchased power clause adjustment
filings and its continuation filings.
[17.9.572.15
NMAC - Rp, 17.9.572.12 NMAC, 5-31-13]
17.9.572.16 CUSTOMERS EXEMPTED PURSUANT TO SECTION
62-16-4A(3) NMSA 1978: Any customer that is a political
subdivision of the state, with consumption exceeding 20 million kilowatt-hours
per year at any single location or facility, and that owns renewable energy
generation, is exempt from all charges by the utility for renewable energy
procurements in a year, regardless of the number of customer locations or meters
on the system, if that customer certifies to the state auditor and notifies the
commission and its serving utility, that it will expend 2 ½% of that year’s
annual electricity charges to continue to develop, within 24 months,
customer-owned renewable energy generation.
That customer shall also certify that it will retire all renewable
energy certificates associated with the energy produced from that expenditure.
A. The notice to
the commission and the customer’s serving utility shall be timely, shall state
the plan year for which the exemption will apply and shall include a copy of
the customer’s certification to the state auditor.
B. This section
only exempts customers from charges for renewable energy procurement costs
incurred and to be recovered by the customer’s serving utility during the plan
year for which the certification applies.
C. A New Mexico
jurisdictional public utility shall not retire any RECs retired per the
certification of a customer made pursuant to Section 62-16-4A(3)
NMSA 1978 for RPS or voluntary renewable energy program compliance.
[17.9.572.16 NMAC - N, 5-31-13]
17.9.572.17 RENEWABLE ENERGY CERTIFICATES:
A. Each
public utility shall annually establish its compliance with the renewable
portfolio standard through the filing of an annual report, as provided in
17.9.572.19 NMAC, documenting the retirement of renewable energy
certificates. Effective for services
provided on and after January 1, 2015, each rural electric distribution
cooperative shall annually establish its compliance with the renewable
portfolio standard through the filing of an annual report, as provided in
17.9.572.23 NMAC, documenting the retirement of renewable energy certificates.
B. Non-WREGIS
registered RECs shall contain the following information:
(1) the name and contact information of the renewable energy
generating facility owner or operator;
(2) the name and contact information of the public utility or
rural electric distribution cooperative purchasing the renewable energy
certificate;
(3) the type of generator technology and fuel type;
(4) the generating
facility’s physical location, nameplate capacity in MW, location and ID number
of revenue meter and date of commencement of commercial generation;
(5) the
public utility or rural electric distribution cooperative to which the
generating facility is interconnected;
(6) the
control area operator for the generating facility; and
(7) the
quantity in kWh and the date of the renewable energy certificate creation.
C. Renewable
energy certificates:
(1) are
owned by the generator of the renewable energy unless:
(a)
the renewable energy certificates are
transferred to the purchaser of the energy through specific agreement with the
generator;
(b)
the generator is a qualifying facility, as defined by the federal Public
Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978, in which case the renewable energy
certificates are owned by the public utility or rural electric distribution
cooperative, purchaser of the renewable energy unless retained by the generator
through specific agreement with the public utility or rural electric
distribution cooperative purchaser of the energy; or
(c)
a contract for the purchase of renewable energy
is in effect prior to January 1, 2004, in which case the purchaser of the
energy owns the renewable energy certificates for the term of such contract;
(2) may be traded, sold
or otherwise transferred by their owner to any other party; such transfers and
use of the certificate by a public utility or rural electric distribution
cooperative for compliance with the renewable energy portfolio standard do not
require physical delivery of the electric energy represented by the certificate
to a public utility or rural electric distribution cooperative, so long as the
electric energy represented by the certificate was contracted for delivery in
New Mexico, or consumed or generated by an end-use customer of the public
utility or rural electric distribution cooperative in New Mexico, unless the
commission determines that there is an active regional market for trading
renewable energy and renewable energy certificates in any region in which the
public utility or rural electric distribution cooperative is located;
(3) that are used once by
a public utility or rural electric distribution cooperative to satisfy the
renewable portfolio standard and are retired, or that are traded, sold or
otherwise transferred by the public utility or rural electric distribution
cooperative shall not be further used by the public utility or rural electric
distribution cooperative; and
(4) that are not used by
a public utility or rural electric distribution cooperative to satisfy the renewable
portfolio standard and that are not traded, sold or otherwise transferred by
the public utility or rural electric distribution cooperative may be carried
forward for up to four years from the date of creation and, if not used by that
time, shall be retired by the public utility or rural electric distribution
cooperative.
D. Public
utilities and rural electric distribution cooperatives are responsible for
demonstrating that a renewable energy certificate used for compliance with the
renewable portfolio standard is derived from eligible renewable energy
resources and has not been retired, traded, sold or otherwise transferred to
another party. Public utilities and
rural electric distribution cooperatives shall maintain records sufficient to
meet the demonstration requirement of this subsection.
E. The
acquisition, sale or transfer, and retirement of any renewable energy
certificates used to meet renewable portfolio standards on or after January 1,
2008 shall be registered with the western renewable energy generation
information system (WREGIS) or its direct successor(s), except as provided in
Subsection F of this section.
Certificates whose retirement has been registered by the public utility
or rural electric distribution cooperative with WREGIS shall be deemed to meet
the requirements of Subsection D of this section.
F. Renewable
energy certificates representing electricity delivered to New Mexico and
registered with a tracking system other than WREGIS may be used to meet
renewable portfolio standards so long as WREGIS lacks the capability to import
certificates from that other tracking system.
G. The
requirement for registration and trading of renewable energy certificates
through WREGIS shall not constitute a finding by the commission that a regional
renewable energy market is generally available.
H. Until
such time as the commission has determined that there is a regional market for
exchanging renewable energy and renewable energy certificates that is generally
available for all public utilities and rural electric distribution cooperatives
in the state, any public utility or rural electric distribution cooperative may
seek approval from the commission to meet some or all of its renewable
portfolio standard using individual renewable energy certificates that
represent energy generated by a renewable energy resource within a regional
renewable energy market or trading system in any region where the public
utility or rural electric cooperative is located.
I. Any state
having a mandatory renewable portfolio standard that accepts renewable energy
certificates for energy produced and delivered in New Mexico on a
non-discriminatory basis for compliance with its
RPS shall be deemed to be part of an
active regional market for RECs for the purposes of Paragraph (2) of Subsection
C of this section.
[17.9.572.17 NMAC - Rp, 17.9.572.13 NMAC, 5-31-13]
17.9.572.18 VOLUNTARY RENEWABLE TARIFFS:
A. Each
public utility shall offer a voluntary renewable energy tariff for those
customers who want the option to purchase additional renewable energy.
B. The
voluntary renewable tariff may also include provisions to enable consumers to
purchase renewable energy within certain energy blocks and by source of
renewable energy. Additionally, each
public utility must develop an educational program on the benefits and
availability of its voluntary renewable energy program. The tariff, along with the details of the
consumer education program, shall be on file with the commission.
[17.9.572.18 NMAC - Rp, 17.9.572.15 NMAC, 5-31-13]
17.9.572.19 ANNUAL RENEWABLE ENERGY PORTFOLIO
REPORT:
Concurrent with the filing of an annual renewable energy plan, each
public utility must file with the commission a report on its renewable energy
generation or purchases of renewable energy during the prior plan year. This report shall:
A. itemize all renewable energy generation or renewable energy
certificate purchases and sales;
B. list,
and include copies of, all renewable energy certificates, including acquired,
issued or retired certificates;
C. document
from WREGIS or its successor the RECs acquired, sold, retired, transferred, or
expired; such documentation shall
include reports from WREGIS or its successor which allow the commission to
determine, by fuel type, the number of RECs in each calendar year:
(1) acquired;
(2) sold;
(3) retired;
(4) transferred; and
(5) expired;
D. describe
the retirements made to meet RPS compliance based on actual retail sales and
procurement costs, for the most recent reporting period including, the
reductions, if any, to the RPS for procurements for non-governmental customers
with consumption exceeding 10 million kilowatt hours per year, customers that
are political subdivisions, or due to the RCT, including an explanation and
exhibits demonstrating how the reduction was determined, how the diversity
requirements were satisfied and the quantity of RECs banked for future
compliance use;
E. describe
and quantify the implementation of the voluntary renewable tariff requirements
in 17.9.572.18 NMAC; and
F. present
a full explanation of approved recovery mechanisms for approved annual
renewable energy plan costs and a complete accounting of all collected and
deferred amounts.
[17.9.572.19 NMAC - Rp, 17.9.572.17 NMAC, 5-31-13]
17.9.572.20 REVIEW BY COMMISSION:
A. Interested
parties wishing to protest an annual Renewable Energy Act plan shall do so by stating
the bases for the protest within 30 days after the filing of the utility’s
annual renewable energy plan.
B. The
commission shall approve or modify annual Renewable Energy Act plans within 90
days and may approve such plans without a hearing, unless a protest is filed
that demonstrates to the commission’s reasonable satisfaction that a hearing is
necessary.
C. The
commission may modify a plan after notice and hearing, and may, for good cause,
extend the time to approve an annual Renewable Energy Act plan for an
additional 90 days.
D. If
the commission has not acted within the ninety-day period, a plan is deemed
approved.
E. The
commission may reject a plan if the commission finds that the plan does not
contain the required information; upon such rejection the public utility’s
obligation to procure additional resources will be suspended for the time
necessary to file a revised plan. In
such instances, the total amount of renewable energy to be procured by the
public utility will not change.
[17.9.572.20 NMAC - Rp, 17.9.572.18 NMAC, 5-31-13]
17.9.572.21 EXEMPTION AND VARIANCE: Any interested
person may file an application for an exemption or a variance from the
requirements of this rule. Such
application shall:
A. identify the section of this rule for which the exemption or
variance is requested;
B. describe the situation that necessitates the exemption or
variance;
C. set
out the effect of complying with this rule on the public utility and its
customers if the exemption or variance is not granted;
D. define
the result the request will have if granted;
E. state how the exemption or variance will be consistent with
the purposes of this rule;
F. state
why no other reasonable alternative is preferable; and
G. state why the proposed alternative
is in the public interest.
[17.9.572.21 NMAC - Rp, 17.9.572.19 NMAC, 5-31-13]
17.9.572.22 RURAL ELECTRIC DISTRIBUTION
COOPERATIVES VOLUNTARY RENEWABLE TARIFFS: Rural electric distribution cooperatives must
offer their retail customers a voluntary renewable energy tariff to the extent
that their suppliers under their all requirements contracts make such renewable
resources available. Rural electric
distribution cooperatives must report to the commission by April 30 of each
year concerning the availability to them of renewable energy and the annual
demand for renewable energy pursuant to their voluntary tariff.
[17.9.572.22 NMAC - Rp, 17.9.572.20 NMAC, 5-31-13]
17.9.572.23 RURAL ELECTRIC DISTRIBUTION
COOPERATIVES RENEWABLE PORTFOLIO STANDARD: Each rural electric distribution cooperative
organized under the Rural Electric Cooperative Act shall meet a renewable
portfolio standard as follows:
A. “Renewable
energy,” “renewable energy certificate” shall have the same definitions as
provided in Subsections D and E of 17.9.572.7 NMAC.
B. No
later than January 1, 2015, renewable energy shall comprise no less than 5% of
each distribution cooperative's total retail sales to New Mexico customers; the
renewable portfolio standard shall increase by 1% per year thereafter until
January 1, 2020, at which time the renewable portfolio standard shall be 10%.
C. The
renewable portfolio standard of each distribution cooperative shall be
diversified as to the type of renewable energy resource, taking into
consideration the overall reliability, availability, dispatch flexibility and
the cost of the various renewable energy resources made available to the
distribution cooperative by its suppliers of electric power.
D. Renewable energy
generation by solar technologies which were developed and operational before
January 1, 2012, by a distribution cooperative or through the wholesale
contract obligation of the wholesale supplier, shall
be given a three time multiplier credit for every kWh generated.
E. Renewable
energy resources that are in a distribution cooperative's energy supply
portfolio on January 1, 2008 shall be counted in determining compliance with
this rule.
F. If
a distribution cooperative determines that, in any given year, the cost of
renewable energy that would need to be procured or generated for purposes of
compliance with the renewable portfolio standard would be greater than the
reasonable cost threshold, the distribution cooperative shall not be required
to incur that cost; provided that the existence of this condition excusing
performance in any given year shall not operate to delay any renewable
portfolio standard in subsequent years. For purposes of the Rural Electric
Cooperative Act, "reasonable cost threshold" means an amount that
shall be no greater than 1% of the distribution cooperative's gross receipts
from business transacted in New Mexico for the preceding calendar year and
shall be subject to the following conditions:
(1) If the wholesale
supplier is obligated to meet all or part of the distribution cooperative’s
requirements, pursuant to the wholesale electric service “all requirements”
contract, the solar calculation by the wholesale provider, shall be provided in
the distribution cooperative’s filing to the commission.
(2) The distribution
cooperative shall submit its RCT information in a form acceptable to the
commission, with the information required in Subsection I below.
G. A rural electric distribution cooperative may collect
from its customers a renewable energy and conservation fee of no more than one
percent of the customer's bill. In no
event shall a rural electric distribution cooperative collect more than $75,000
annually through the renewable energy and conservation fee from any single
customer. Money collected through the
renewable energy and conservation fee shall be segregated in a separate
renewable energy and conservation account from other distribution cooperative
funds and shall be expended only on programs or projects to promote the use of
renewable energy, load management or energy efficiency.
H. Each distribution cooperative that collects a renewable
energy and conservation fee from its customers shall deduct from the fees paid
to the state pursuant to Section 62-8-8
NMSA 1978 an amount equal to 50% of the amount of money collected through the renewable
energy and conservation fee during the preceding calendar year.
I. By
April 30 of each year, a distribution cooperative shall file with the public
regulation commission a report on its purchases and generation of renewable
energy during the preceding calendar year; the report shall include the cost of
the renewable energy resources purchased and generated by the distribution
cooperative to meet the renewable portfolio standard; the report shall provide
the information required below:
(1) a summary of the distribution cooperative's purchases and
generation of renewable energy and purchases of renewable energy certificates
that occurred during the preceding calendar year;
(2) the total amount
of monies collected by the distribution cooperative from its customers during
the preceding calendar year through the assessment of a renewable energy and
conservation fee and the balance of funds in the distribution cooperative's
renewable energy and conservation fund, as of January 1 and December 31 of the
preceding calendar year;
(3) the amount of
monies withheld by the distribution cooperative from the inspection and
supervision fees due to the state that were placed in the renewable energy and
conservation fund as a partial match of the renewable energy and conservation
fees collected during the preceding calendar year;
(4) the amount of monies received by the distribution
cooperative from any third party that were placed in the renewable energy and
conservation fund;
(5) whether and to
what extent the distribution cooperative will assess its customers for a
renewable energy and conservation fee in the succeeding calendar year; and
(6) a summary of each
renewable energy project, energy efficiency or load management program upon
which monies from the renewable energy and conservation fund were expended
during the preceding calendar year, which includes:
(a) a description of the anticipated benefits to the
distribution cooperative's members from each project or program;
(b) the amount of monies spent on each project or program; and
(c) the current status of each project or program.
J. For
renewable distributed generation systems of 25kW or less, whether
interconnected or not with the distribution cooperative’s system, the annual
renewable energy credits can be determined by use of a metering device or
pursuant to a recognized standard allocation of 2.500 kWhs
per 1 kW of installed capacity, and these RECs shall not be required to be
registered with WREGIS, if the following conditions are met:
(1) the renewable distributed generation system is owned by the
distribution cooperative;
(2) the renewable distribution cooperative provides tariffed service to customers from
the distributed generation system; and
(3) WREGIS lacks the
capability to import certificates from the renewable distributed generation or
(4) if registration of the RECs from the renewable distributed
generation cannot be justified by the cost of registration.
K. A distribution
cooperative shall report to its membership a summary of its purchases and
generation of renewable energy during the preceding calendar year.
[17.9.572.23 NMAC - Rp, 17.9.572.21 NMAC, 5-31-13]
HISTORY OF 17.9.572 NMAC:
Pre-NMAC History: None.
History of Repealed Material:
17
NMAC 10.572, Renewable Energy Development Program (filed 11-30-98) repealed
7-1-03.
17.9.572
NMAC, Renewable Energy as a Source of Electricity (filed 6-16-03) repealed
1-14-05.
17.9.572
NMAC, Renewable Energy for Electric Utilities (filed 12-29-04) repealed
8-30-07.
17.9.572
NMAC, Renewable Energy for Electric Utilities (filed 8-15-07) repealed 5-31-13.
Other History:
17
NMAC 10.572, Renewable Energy Development Program (filed 11-30-98) replaced by
17.9.572 NMAC, Renewable Energy as a Source of Electricity, effective 7-1-03,
17.9.572 NMAC, Renewable Energy as a Source of Electricity (filed 6-16-03)
replaced by 17.9.572, Renewable Energy for Electric Utilities, effective
1-14-05. 17.9.572 NMAC, Renewable Energy
for Electric Utilities (filed 12-29-04) replaced by 17.9.572 NMAC, Renewable
Energy for Electric Utilities (filed 8-15-07) replaced by 17.9.572 NMAC,
Renewable Energy for Electric Utilities effective 5-31-13.