Utilities in Arizona and Colorado on June 26 released timelines for early closures of their coal-fired power plants, reflecting a larger trend across the Southwest of utilities phasing out coal-fired baseload generation and incorporating more renewables and storage into their resource mix. M…
While Arizona utilities don't expect to find their equipment is to blame for any of the massive wildfires that have plagued the state so far this summer, they have seen impact from the fires in terms of lost poles, outages and evacuations in their service territories.
Montrose, Colorado-based Delta-Montrose Electric Association officially left Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association's membership June 30 after paying the cooperative an additional $26 million for asset purchases and agreeing to forfeit $48 million in patronage capital.
Black Hills Energy on June 29 filed a 120-day report with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission detailing the results of its solicitation for renewable-energy and storage projects, as well as its chosen bid: a 200-MW solar project in Pueblo County. The bidding process concluded Feb. 15, w…
The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission at a June 24 meeting approved a general accounting order authorizing utilities in the state to create regulatory assets to track financial losses attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic for potential recovery in future rate cases.
Price fluctuations have gripped the oil and gas industry since March, throwing the New Mexico state budget into turmoil, so state officials have turned their eyes to another abundant natural resource in the state: wind. But a massive buildout of wind farms and transmission lines will require…
Arizona Public Service expects results from its research on the technical and economic feasibility of producing hydrogen from nuclear generation at its 4.2-GW Palo Verde Generating Station by August or September, as part of a collaborative partnership with the Idaho National Laboratory, the …
NV Energy's wildfire mitigation plan is extensive—and expensive, according to Public Utilities Commission of Nevada staff and consumer advocates who met with the utility this week to discuss the details of its Natural Disaster Protection Plan.
The Colorado General Assembly's Joint Budget Committee addressed a $3.3-billion budget shortfall before returning to the Capitol to finish its regular session. There, lawmakers unveiled a package of bills aimed at coronavirus relief and passed one that could offer utility bill assistance bef…
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on June 15 launched the Protect Our Neighbors phase of his administration's response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Communities that qualify to participate in this phase must have low virus transmission levels and be able to demonstrate strong public health syste…
The saga of two Colorado electric cooperatives curious about breaking contracts with their generation and transmission provider is one step closer to further confusion following a recent order from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
NV Energy on June 1 filed with the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada for a $120-million reduction in its annual revenue requirement as part of what the utility called in the filing a "multipart plan to assist Nevada in its recovery efforts" from the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, across t…
State utility regulators left frustrated from a special meeting June 18 after legal counsel advised the Arizona Corporation Commission to seek relief for Arizona Public Service customers in the utility's pending rate case rather than through alternatives that might bring speedier but less pe…
A year's worth of expanded clean-energy programs will soon be available to Nevada residents with the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada's June 10 approval of NV Energy's annual package of incentive programs to boost solar, storage and electric-vehicle infrastructure adoption.
The Arizona Corporation Commission at a June 10 meeting approved requests from five of the state's rural electric cooperatives to adjust the commission's 2019 emergency rules prohibiting disconnections for nonpayment from June 1 to Oct. 15.
Public Service Company of New Mexico on June 11 filed notice to the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission that it will not renew leases for 114 MW at the 3,937-MW Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona. The decision will allow PNM to integrate more renewable energy resources, whi…
Public Service Company of New Mexico on May 28 filed to the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission an application to decouple the rates of residential and small commercial electric customers from electric sales volume and instead seek a rate of return based on the utility's fixed costs.
Denver International Airport, a Frisco middle school and a Denver community center are among seven Colorado locations likely to host microgrids following a settlement agreement reached last month between Xcel Energy subsidiary Public Service Company of Colorado, various interest groups and t…
Salt River Project, Arizona's second-largest utility, issued a request for information from wind developers for up to 500 MW of wind-powered energy. The Tempe-based utility announced the request June 1, almost exactly one year after the SRP board approved a new set of carbon dioxide emission…
Rural electric cooperatives in the Southwest feel confident in their ability to keep the lights on in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, but recognize that the full effect of the economic downturn is yet to be felt.
A Utah subsidiary of French solar developer Photosol plans to invest $680 million in the development of a 372-MW solar array near the site of northwestern New Mexico's 847-MW coal-fired San Juan Generating Station, which is set to close in 2022.
A 520-mile high-voltage transmission line in New Mexico and Arizona that received federal right-of-way approval in 2016 is reopening its National Environmental Protection Act process with a plan to be operational by 2024.
The City of Boulder, Colorado, and Xcel Energy, the state's largest investor-owned utility, are in settlement discussions to consider alternatives to Boulder's decade-long effort to form a municipal utility. The city in a May 12 release said the discussions may lead to an alternative for rea…
Colorado's investor-owned utilities recently filed with the state's Public Utilities Commission their 2021-2023 transportation-electrification plans detailing how they intend to help the state reach its goal of 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030.
An appeal brought by an electric distribution cooperative against the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission remains in litigation following a closed-session meeting of commission members May 20 to discuss the matter.
Executives at two Colorado distribution cooperatives, in their effort to secure lower exit charges to dissolve their membership in a wholesale generation and transmission cooperative, offered remote testimony May 18 to 20 in an evidentiary hearing via videoconference before a Colorado Public…
The Arizona Corporation Commission at a special meeting May 19 rejected a proposal for a blanket accounting order that would have allowed regulated utilities to track both costs and savings incurred as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic [AU-00000A-20-0094].
The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission at a meeting held via web conference May 13 approved long-term power-purchase agreements between El Paso Electric Co. of Las Cruces and independent developers of solar and solar-plus-storage projects in south central New Mexico [19-00348-UT].
Rates of death and serious illness from COVID-19 infection in areas with high concentrations of fine particulate pollution—such as that which forms from power plant and tailpipe emissions—reflect the results of a Harvard University study published in April showing a link between air pollutio…
The U.S. Department of the Interior on May 11 approved the construction and operation of what is likely to become the nation's largest solar project: the Gemini solar-plus-storage project 30 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
NV Energy on May 4 filed to the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada a new pricing structure for large customers which, if approved, would provide customers with an average load of more than 8,764 MWh with a reduced fixed energy price for five years.
The Arizona Corporation Commission at a May 6 meeting voted to return to ratepayers in the form of one-time bill credits demand-side management funds overcollected by two large utilities.
The largest of Westminster, Colorado-based Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association's 43 electric distribution cooperative members on May 4 filed suit against the wholesale power provider and its three non-co-op members, alleging fraudulent dealing intended to bind members to Tri-St…
The citizens of Pueblo, Colorado, overwhelmingly rejected a May 5 ballot measure that would have had the city depart the service of Black Hills Energy and form its own municipal electric utility, an outcome some said was affected by Black Hills' spending.
An April 2019 explosion at Arizona Public Service's McMicken Substation occurred after compromised battery modules emitted a mixture of explosive gases that built up in the container and came into contact with an as-yet-unidentified ignition source, the utility said.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on April 23 dismissed five separate appeals from environmental groups that sought evidentiary hearings to challenge Holtec International's proposal to construct and operate a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in Lea County, New Mexico. The site would …
The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission during a webcast meeting April 29 voted 3-2 to defer approval of Public Service Company of New Mexico's least-cost solar projects proposed as part of the replacement resources for the utility's coal-fired San Juan Generating Station.
A New Mexico university will receive millions of dollars from the U.S. Department of Energy to study the potential for long-term carbon sequestration in underground saline aquifers near the San Juan Generating Station.
The Colorado Energy Office on April 23 unveiled its most ambitious transportation-electrification plan to date, announcing a long-term 100-percent zero-emissions goal for all vehicles in the state.
Boulder, Colorado's ongoing effort to depart the service of Xcel subsidiary Public Service Company of Colorado and establish its own municipal utility hit yet another roadblock April 14, when the Boulder District Court issued an order to stay the condemnation petition the city filed against …
New Mexico regulators will wait to decide on 350 MW of solar resources planned as a partial replacement for the output of the 847-MW San Juan Generating Station.
The developer of a Nevada concentrated-solar plant that left the U.S. Department of Energy on the hook for $737 million in unpaid loans appears to have ceased operations.
Energy demand appears to be suffering from the effects of COVID-19 as people continue to work, learn and try to play from home under state-mandated orders intended to slow the spread of the virus.
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, a Colorado-based wholesale power provider with 43 electric distribution cooperative members across four states, on April 9 approved a new partial-requirements contract option that could allow greater flexibility for its members to self-suppl…
The Arizona Corporation Commission at an April 14 meeting held via videoconference approved a certificate of environmental compatibility allowing Tucson Electric Power to proceed with the development of a 138-kV transmission line project previously approved by the Arizona Power Plant and Tra…
Two environmental and consumer advocacy groups, on April 10 filed an appeal with the New Mexico Supreme Court over the application of the state's Energy Transition Act in a final order issued April 1 by the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission. The landmark bill, SB 489, sets a target of …
A $1.3-billion plan to convert the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station in northwestern New Mexico to a carbon capture, utilization and sequestration facility is moving ahead despite recent drops in the price of crude oil.
The country's largest proposed solar and battery energy storage project ran up against a 1966 law requiring federal agencies to consider the effects of development on historical assets.
New Mexico's largest utility on April 1 got the go-ahead from state regulators to abandon its interest in Units 1 and 4 of the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station near Farmington and to recover the costs of its undepreciated assets in the plant through securitization.
More than 50 environmental groups signed a March 25 letter urging the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to extend public comment on its draft environmental impact statement regarding Holtec International's proposed nuclear waste storage facility in southeastern New Mexico.
