Download - Renewable Energy Resources—Hydropower
New Mexico’s hydroelectric capacity isabout 78.3 megawatts from five plants.
Hydropower is not a large portion of thestate’s total generating capacity and there isnot a great deal more potential because ofthe state’s arid climate and because greaterdevelopment would involve substantialenvironmental concerns. Significant evapo-rative water losses occur from hydropowerprojects that include storage reservoirs.Drought has an adverse impact of on waterlevels and hydro plant output
Undeveloped small hydropower sites existin New Mexico, including river sites andexisting dams, but numerous constraintslimit the potential. These constraintsinclude financing, multiple-use issues, reg-ulatory barriers, economic issues, andenvironmental impacts.
Renewable Energy Resources—Hydropower
Table 6. Hydropower Plants in New Mexico
PLANT CAPACITY (MW) OWNER
Navajo Reservoir 30 City of Farmington
Elephant Butte 24.3 U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation
Abiquiu 15 County of Los Alamos
El Vado 8.8 County of Los Alamos
Farmington 0.2 City of Farmington
ENERGY, MINERALS and NATURAL RESOURCES DEPARTMENT 34
35 NEW MEXICO’S NATURAL RESOURCES 2003/2004
Electricity is importantto New Mexico becauseit affects industrialgrowth in both theenergy and non-energysectors of the state’seconomy. Electric utili-ties also consumesubstantial amounts ofnatural gas and coalresources extracted inthe state, generatingconsiderable revenuesin the process. NewMexico’s power plants(see Table 7) have atotal capacity of morethan 6,000 megawatts,over 70% of which islocated at two coal-fired plants nearFarmington, the Four Corners and San JuanGenerating Stations. California and Arizonautilities own approximately 68% of thesetwo plants. Approximately half of the elec-tricity generated in New Mexico isconsumed in other states. Total electricalgeneration over the past several years areshown in Figure 1. Electricity generated in2002 was 4.8% lower than in 2001.
Total electric generation capacity in NewMexico was 6,763 megawatts (MW) as of
January 1, 2004 (see Table 8). Of the totalcapacity, coal comprised 4,382 MW (65%);natural gas—2,087 MW (31%); and renew-ables—295 MW (4%). An additional 200MW of wind electric generating capacity isscheduled to be online by the end of 2005.
More than 87% of the state’s generation isfrom coal compared to about 50% nation-wide (see Table 9). There is much moregeneration from nuclear and hydropower inthe rest of the country. There are four
investor-owned utilities in New Mexico,serving approximately 70% of the cus-tomers (see Figure 2). The 20 rural electriccooperatives serve about 22% of the cus-tomers, although they service about 85% ofthe state’s land area. Tri-State Generationand Transmission Association is a wholesalesupplier of 13 member cooperatives. Thereare seven municipal electric utilities servingthe remaining eight percent of the state’selectric customers.
Secondary Energy Resources—Electricity
The number of ultimate customers buyingelectricity has increased every year over thepast four years (see Figure 9). The increasein the residential sector from 1998 through2002 was 7.6%, and the increase in thecommercial/industrial sector was 8%. Thetotal number of customers in New Mexicoincreased by 7.8% from 1998 through 2002.
New Mexico’s electricity consumption percustomer decreased 2% over the pastfour years.
Average sales per residential customerincreased from 6,661 kWh to 6,988 kWh.Average sales per commercial/industrial cus-tomer decreased from 112,677 kWh to108,082 kWh. Total revenues from the sales
of electricity in New Mexico in 2002 were$1.29 billion (See Figure 10.).
Figure 11 shows the price paid per kWh inNew Mexico and the United States for 1998through 2002 in the residential, commercial and industrial sectors. Price per kWh isderived by dividing revenue by sales. Theprice paid in New Mexico decreased 4% in
Secondary Energy Resources—Electricity
ENERGY, MINERALS and NATURAL RESOURCES DEPARTMENT 36
37 NEW MEXICO’S NATURAL RESOURCES 2003/2004
the residential sector, decreased 8% in thecommercial sector, and remained about thesame in the industrial sector over this four-year period. In 2002, New Mexico’s pricescompared to U.S. prices were 0.5% higherin the residential sector, 8.1% lower in thecommercial sector, and 8.4% lower in theindustrial sector.
In 2002 the Public Regulation Commissioncontinued hearings and workshops on pro-posed rulemaking to require electricityproviders to include renewable energy as aresource. They issued a final rule thatrequires 10% renewable energy by the year2011 with intermediate requirements. Therule also requires utilities to offer an optionalgreen power tariff so that those customerswilling to pay more for renewable power willbe able to purchase larger amounts ofrenewable power.
Secondary Energy Resources—Electricity
Table 8. New Mexico Electric Generation Capacity
and Percentage of Total, by Fuel Source (as of January 1, 2004)
Fuel Source New Mexico
Capacity (MW)
% of Total
Capacity
Coal 4,382.1 64.8%
Natural Gas 2,087.0 30.9%
Renewables 294.8 4.4%
Hydro 81.1 27.5%
Non-Hydro 213.7 72.5%
Wind 206.0 96.4%
Solar 0.2 0.1%
Geothermal 0.9 0.4%
Biomass 6.6 3.1%
Table 9. Electrical Generation by Fuel Source, 2002
(Data from Edison Electric Institute, Statistical Yearbook of the Electric Industry)
MILLION KILOWATT-HOURS
Coal Fuel Oil Gas Nuclear Hydro Other Total
New Mexico 26,903 33 3,442 — 265 19 30,662
Nation 1,933,130 94,567 702,469 780,064 255,586 92,636 3,858,452
PERCENT
Coal Fuel Oil Gas Nuclear Hydro Other Total
New Mexico 87.7% 0.1% 11.2% - 0.9% - 100.0%
Nation 50.1% 2.5% 18.2% 20.2% 6.6% 2.4% 100.0%
Plant Name Unit
Plant
Fuel Type
Capacity
MW Owner
Raton 1,2&3 Coal 13 Raton Public Service Co.
Abiquiu Dam 1&2 Hydro 15 Los Alamos County
Carlsbad 5 Gas 16 Southwestern Public Service Co.
Elephant Butte Dam 1,2&3 Hydro 24 U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
Hidalgo Smelter TGU1&2 Gas 30 Phelps Dodge
Navajo Dam 1 Hydro 30 City of Farmington
Animas GT1+ST4 Gas 35 City of Farmington
Milagro Cogeneration 1&2 Gas 61 Williams Field Services Co.
Lordsburg Generating Station GT1>2 Gas 80 PNM
Chino Mines 5,7,8&9 Gas 94 Phelps Dodge
Delta-Person GT1 Gas 132 Delta-Power, LLC
Afton Generating Station 1 Gas 135 PNM
Reeves 1,2&3 Gas 154 PNM
New Mexico Wind Energy Center 1 - 136 Wind 204 PNM
Maddox 1,2&3 Gas 213 Southwestern Public Service Co.
Escalante 1 Coal 257 Tri-State T&G
Rio Grande 6,7&8 Gas 267 El Paso Electric Co.
Cunningham 1,2,3&4 Gas 519 Southwestern Public Service Co.
San Juan (PNM) 1,2,3&4 Coal 1800 PNM
Four Corners 1,2,3,4&5 Coal 2040 Arizona Public Service
Total 6118.9
Table 7. Power Plants in New Mexico
Renewables divided into sub-categories.
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