Climate Change:
What We're Doing
PNM Resources is a founding member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership.
USCAP is a group of leading businesses and environmental organizations that supports legislation to cut national carbon emissions to 80 percent below 2005 levels by 2050 - at costs manageable to families and businesses.
U.S. Climate Action Partnership (us-cap.org)
We also are a founding member of Combat Climate Change, an international organization focused on global initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Combat Climate Change (combatclimatechange.org)
Our other efforts include:
New, cleaner energy resources
- PNM purchases all of the power produced by the massive, 200-megawatt New Mexico Wind Energy Center in eastern New Mexico.
- We have a pending proposal to use biogas, derived from dairy waste produced by farms in southern New Mexico, to help power the gas-fired Luna Energy Facility near Deming.
- In fall 2009, we will file a plan with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission to bring on a significant amount of new utility-scale wind and solar photovoltaic energy at various locations in our state.
Empowering customers to generate their own power
- We have two existing programs that allow customers who own their own solar PV systems to:
- send excess power on to the grid and receive credit for it.
- be paid for the environmental attributes of that energy (known as renewable energy credits).
- As the price of solar PV drops, it's appropriate that we look at how these programs are structured so we:
- continue to encourage PV.
- avoid unfair subsidies by all customers to those who can afford to own these systems.
- We will file a plan on the future of these programs in fall 2009.
Expanding energy efficiency
- Our programs on energy efficiency have been a big hit with customers.
- They are projected to reduce carbon emissions by an estimated 80 million pounds, or 36,000 metric tons, per year.
- This is the equivalent of removing more than 6,600 cars from the road.
- Residential customers have received rebates to install more than 1.5 million compact fluorescent light bulbs.
- We've paid more than 12,000 customers to recycle old, inefficient refrigerators.
- We launched new programs in 2009 to help businesses pay for lighting and equipment retrofits.
Maintaining efficient nuclear ownership
- PNM owns 10 percent of Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, the nation's largest nuclear power plant.
- This power plant, near Phoenix, is an important source of carbon-free generation.
- PNM is committed to working with the plant's operator, Arizona Public Service, to ensure it runs as efficiently and productively as possible.
Research and demonstration projects
- We are using experimental, cutting-edge technology to monitor and prevent leaks of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) at an Albuquerque sub-station.
- SF6 is used as an insulating gas in high-voltage utility equipment and is one of the most potent greenhouse gases known.
- It has a global warming potential 23,000 times that of carbon dioxide.
- Through its membership in the Electric Power Research Institute, PNM was a funder of the initial phase of the Alstom Chilled Ammonia Carbon Capture Pilot Demonstration Project.
- The project, at a plant owned by WE Energies, is testing whether chilled ammonia can be used to remove carbon from the flue gas of an existing coal-fired power plant.
Smart grid
- PNM is one of four U.S. utilities to be selected by EPRI as host sites for a smart-grid demonstration project.
- PNM's project will combine demand-side management, energy storage and solar PV to further the understanding of integration technologies and standards needed to allow for greater deployment of renewables and energy efficiency.
- The five-year, multi-phased project is a collaborative effort between PNM, EPRI, Mesa del Sol, Sandia National Laboratories, the University of New Mexico and Northern New Mexico Community College.
Electric Power Research Institute (epri.com)
Planning for the future
- We include a range of carbon prices in calculations in our integrated resource planning process.
- The IRP is how we determine what resources we will use to meet the growing and changing needs of our customers.
- Only by including a price for carbon can we properly evaluate the real costs of coal- and gas-fired facilities versus the cost of other resources, including carbon-free renewable energy sources.
