Stronger, better-funded energy-efficiency programs needed

Published February 19 in Santa Fe New Mexican and on February 25 in the Albuquerque Journal

We have all seen our Public Service Company of New Mexico electricity rates increase over the past few years. From April 2008 to today, PNM rates for the average residential customer has increased by 41 percent or $250 per year.

Where is all of this money going? More of it should be coming right back to you and other customers in the form of PNM information and rebates to lower your costs for energy-efficient light bulbs, appliances, weatherization and insulation. But currently most of it is going to keep PNM's aging coal plants running and hooking up more energy-guzzling housing subdivisions.

Why should you care? Because energy efficiency is the cheapest way to satisfy New Mexico's electricity demand, by a significant margin. PNM's 2010 annual report on energy efficiency states that the average cost to save a kilowatt hour of electrical energy is 1.86 cents. Compare that to the 11 cents per kWh paid by the average residential user.

And even though much of our energy needs could be satisfied by a lot more investment in making our homes and businesses more energy-efficient, PNM's programs are still modest by the standards of other utilities in the Southwest.

Energy efficiency provides the same customer service with less energy used. For example, a compact fluorescent light bulb uses only 26 watts of power but puts out the same amount of light as a conventional incandescent light that uses 100 watts or an improved incandescent light that uses 72 watts. In addition to power plants that generate electricity, PNM runs an Energy Efficiency Program that offers residential and commercial customers discounts or rebates on products that save energy, like more efficient lighting. Other examples include rebates for turning in and recycling older refrigerators, energy-conservation measures for low-income customers, and rebates for businesses to purchase and install more efficient cooling, lighting and other equipment.

But PNM could do much more. The company has only saved a cumulative 1.6 percent of its energy provided to New Mexico customers through 2010, while leading utilities tapping this resource nationally are saving more than twice that amount.

New Mexico policymakers recognized that energy-efficiency programs can save rate payers a lot of money. In 2005, the New Mexico Legislature passed the Efficient Use of Energy Act to accelerate the adoption of these cost-saving programs. The act requires that utility energy-efficiency programs save a cumulative 5 percent of 2005 utility energy sales by 2014 and 10 percent by 2020. Since PNM has only achieved savings of 1.6 percent of sales through 2010, you can see that we have a long way to go to get to the goals established by the Legislature.

We urge the Public Regulation Commission and the utilities to pursue more aggressively saving energy rather than just keeping dirty old coal plants running or building expensive new gas plants. New Mexicans have seen major rate increases in recent years, and the most cost-effective way to stop our electric bills from increasing is through energy-efficiency programs. These programs need to address energy usage in all sectors and economic segments of the population so that everyone benefits.

This can be done. Nationwide, utility energy-efficiency programs saved enough energy in 2010 to power 9.7 million homes, according to a recent report by the Institute for Energy Efficiency. Utilities in Arizona, Utah, Colorado and Nevada are achieving significantly higher energy-efficiency savings than are utilities in New Mexico. If New Mexico's utilities expanded their energy-efficiency programs and helped customers realize greater energy savings, households and businesses in the state could realize $500 million or more in net economic benefits over the next decade. New Mexicans can and should benefit from stronger, better-funded utility energy-efficiency programs.

Tammy Fiebelkorn is the New Mexico Representative for Southwest Energy Efficiency Project.

Santa Fean Tom Singer is a senior advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Shrayas Jatkar, Organizing Representative, Sierra Club