PRC to hold hearing on power proposal for Facebook facility

One request received by deadline triggers move

The state Public Regulation Commission received just one comment from the public on a utility’s request to power a proposed Facebook data center with renewable energy.

In early July, the Public Service Company of New Mexico asked the commission to quickly approve a project that would provide at least 30 megawatts of renewable energy to a $250 million data center for the internet giant. The expedited request was necessary, PNM said, because it is competing with a utility in Utah to draw the center to New Mexico. As part of the request, PNM asked that the commission waive a public hearing.

PNM said the project would create jobs in the state and that Facebook would front most of the costs of the power facility.

The PRC declined to waive the hearing, however, unless no public comments on the project were received. That was the case Tuesday, but on Wednesday, the last day of the comment period, Albuquerque resident Hubert Allen submitted a comment requesting that the public hearing be held, as scheduled, Aug. 9.

Allen said he has solar power on his home that is net-metered by PNM.

“I believe there is an opportunity to include home solar producers such as myself as a power supply to Facebook through the power I return to PNM,” he wrote. “There needs to be a market-place for my excess power. Alternatively, I may be giving my excess electricity back to PNM for no payments at all, which I do not want to have to do.”

Solar companies also have expressed concerns that smaller businesses won’t have the opportunity to compete for the Facebook power project, and they have said the public deserves an opportunity to learn whether the proposal is fair to all stakeholders.

PRC member Valerie Espinoza, D-Santa Fe, has asked the to utility provide a comprehensive risk and cost analysis for customers now and into the future before the hearing in August.

Carlos Padilla, a spokesman for the commission, confirmed that the hearing remains scheduled for 9 a.m. Aug. 9.