In two weeks, Public Service Company of New Mexico will celebrate the company's fifth utility-scale solar facility installed this year.

The 78,000 photovoltaic panels on 50 acres of company-owned land near Las Vegas, N.M., will produce up to 5 megawatts of power. The electricity produced will be enough to power about 1,600 homes.

The Las Vegas facility is another step toward meeting a state-mandated renewable energy standard for public utilities.

But it would fall short of meeting the standard in 2012 if the Public Regulation Commission approves the company's renewable energy plan.

Under the law, PNM and the state's two other public utilities are supposed to be generating 10 percent of their energy sales to customers from renewable sources — solar, wind, geothermal or other. By 2015, it should be 15 percent, and from 2020 forward, 20 percent.

PNM met the state requirement the last two years, but says producing 10 percent from renewable sources in 2012 will be too expensive for ratepayers, and is asking the PRC to grant a waiver for next year. Under PNM's proposed 2012 procurement plan, it would only need to provide 5.5 percent of retail energy sales from solar, wind or other renewable sources.

"The statute requires you to meet a certain standard, but not beyond a reasonable cost," said PNM spokeswoman Susan Sponar. "There's a lot of debate about how you calculate those costs."

In addition, the plan would limit the number of people who could apply for "net metering," installing their own solar photovoltaic systems and having them connect to the PNM electricity grid.

That's causing disagreements between PNM and renewable energy advocates over the company's 2012 plan.

Randy Sadewic, president of the solar installation company Positive Energy of Santa Fe and board member of the Renewable Energy Industry Association, said the plan will hurt REIA's 20 member companies, which employ an estimated 600 people. "In my opinion, the PNM proposal is not appropriate," Sadewic said in 100 pages of testimony given before a PRC hearing officer in October.

The PRC finished hearing testimony on PNM's 2012 plan last week. Now a hearing officer will make a recommendation to the commission.

The company's first foray into large-scale solar facilities came in April, when it brought onto the grid a 2 megawatt solar facility in Albuquerque. Three other 5 megawatt solar facilities were built in Los Lunas, Deming and Alamogordo. In total, the facilities can produce up to 51 million kilowatt hours in a year, enough to power 7,000 homes.

The cost of the five projects will be collected from consumers through a renewable rate "rider" next July. "Our customers won't start to pay for these programs until next summer," Sponar said.

In addition to the electricity produced by PNM's five facilities, PNM customers have created another 25 megawatts of solar capacity through solar panels on their homes. PNM gets credit toward meeting the state renewable energy requirements, and the customers get paid for the electricity they produce.

But it still costs the company money to maintain the lines and provide electricity when solar panels aren't providing power.

The company also has 200 megawatts of wind-energy capacity at its New Mexico Wind Energy Center.

In addition to the state requirement to produce a certain percent of customer electricity from renewable sources, the PRC has a rule dictating how much solar, wind and other renewables must be in the power mix each year. The PRC will be considering amendments to the renewable energy rule in the weeks ahead. The amended rule is available on the PRC website at www.nmprc.state.nm.us. Comments on the rule must be submitted by
Dec. 27. Responses to comments must be filed by Jan. 24.

Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.