PRC to try again on renewable costs

New rule-making gets mixed reaction

For the third time since 2008, the state Public Regulation Commission has ordered new rule-making about how to calculate costs for renewable energy, provoking mixed reactions among parties in the case.

The PRC voted 5- 0 earlier this week to cease a “rehearing” about the issue that would have allowed intervenors to seek changes through an expedited process to rules approved by the commission last December. Instead, the PRC will now allow the December rules to take effect, but also open an entirely new hearing process to look at some contentious clauses.

The clauses force utilities to diversify renewable-energy sources to include more expensive things like solar power rather than just lowercost wind energy. They also require utilities to include savings from avoided construction of fossil-fuel plants and other infrastructure when calculating net costs of renewable energy.

Conflict over those issues, which renewable advocates and environmentalists support, have bogged the case down for five years. The first hearing process lasted from 2008 to mid-2011 with no final PRC decision. The next rulemaking started in mid-2011 and ended in the PRC December approval.

But commissioners said another process is merited because the approved rules haven’t resolved conf licts, and because commissioners Valerie Espinoza and Karen Montoya, who took office in January, should be more informed.

Reactions were mixed among intervenors. PNM said it supports a new process to achieve more clarity in the rules and hopefully more agreement. Western Resource Advocates and the Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy also said a new process might help resolve conflicts.

But Renewable Energy Industry Association President Tom Young said, “I can’t see much changing, and it’s expensive litigation for everyone involved.”