PNM Resources’ New Mexico utility, PNM, has filed with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission for an increase in electric rates.
Pat Vincent-Collawn, PNM Resources’ chairman, president, and CEO, said, “Changes are needed to bring the rate structure more in line with how people use energy today, ensuring the ability to recover the costs of operating the electric system, and to more fairly allocate those costs among customers.”
In the rate filing, PNM also proposes to more fairly align electric rates with actual costs to serve customers, while still supporting energy efficiency and rooftop solar programs. If approved, would be applied beginning on Jan. 1, 2016.
The improvements would include a solar distributed generation interconnection fee, applied only to new rooftop solar customers after Jan. 1, 2016, to more properly allocate the costs between solar distributed generation and non-solar customers, since today non-solar customers help to pay for the utility system that solar customers use. The proposed fee is $6 per kilowatt, and with systems averaging 3-5 kilowatts, the new fee would be $18-$30 per month.
“The proposed rooftop solar changes are necessary to avoid non-solar customers becoming increasingly and unfairly burdened with higher costs because of customers who have rooftop solar systems.”
