New Mexico:

State Utility Plans to Significantly Increase Renewable Energy Including Geothermal (Fierce Energy)

New Mexico Utility plans to add another 10 MWe geothermal energy to its portfolio

(Courtesy Wikipedia commons)

PNM Resources' New Mexico Utility, PNM, has filed its 2014 Integrated Resource Plan with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, outlining how the company plans to provide a reliable, cost-effective, and environmentally responsible power supply in the future.

The resource plan is consistent with PNM's five-year capital investment plan. To create the plan, PNM analyzed thousands of potential energy resource combinations to identify the best mix of generation sources. PNM considered future changes in the cost and reliability of each resource mix over time. Based on the results of the analysis, the company expects to add significant renewable energy resources to its power portfolio in the coming years.

PNM plans to add an additional 10 MW of geothermal energy to its resources. At present the utility buys electricity from the the Cyrq Energy Dale Burgett (Lightning Dock) Geothermal facility operating at a peak of 6 MW, which is the summer-derated value expected when the facility reaches

10 MW of net capacity. 

Using information gather from the past few RFPs that PNM has issued, PNM believes that some potential still exists for new geothermal resources. Based on previous RFPs, PNM used an average of costs to provide a proxy for this resource from a third party developer at an expected PPA rate of $131.49/MWh levelized over a thirty year life.

The primary factor driving siting of geothermal facilities is the location of a viable geothermal resource. This option assumes minimal interconnection costs due to recent experience with the Dale Burgett Geothermal facility. Therefore, geothermal alternatives would need to be evaluated on a case by case basis.

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