New Mexico § 62-16-3 - Definitions

§ 62-16-3. Definitions

As used in the Renewable Energy Act: A. “ commission ” means the public regulation commission; B. “ energy storage ” means batteries or other means by which energy can be retained and delivered as

electricity for use at a later time; C. “ municipality ” means a municipal corporation, organized under the laws of the state, and H class

counties; D. “ public utility ” means an entity certified by the commission to provide retail electric service in

New Mexico pursuant to the Public Utility Act but does not include rural electric

cooperatives; E. “ reasonable cost threshold ” means an average annual levelized cost of sixty dollars ($60.00) per megawatt-hour

at the point of interconnection of the renewable energy resource with the transmission

system, adjusted for inflation after 2020; F. “ renewable energy ” means electric energy generated by use of renewable energy resources and delivered

to a public utility; G. “ renewable energy certificate ” means a certificate or other record, in a format approved by the commission, that

represents all the environmental attributes from one megawatt-hour of electricity

generated from renewable energy; H. “ renewable energy resource ” means the following energy resources, with or without energy storage: (1) solar, wind and geothermal; (2) hydropower facilities brought in service on or after July 1, 2007; (3) biomass resources, limited to agriculture or animal waste, small diameter timber,

not to exceed eight inches, salt cedar and other phreatophyte or woody vegetation

removed from river basins or watersheds in New Mexico; provided that these resources

are from facilities certified by the energy, minerals and natural resources department

to: (a) be of appropriate scale to have sustainable feedstock in the near vicinity; (b) have zero life cycle carbon emissions; and (c) meet scientifically determined restoration, sustainability and soil nutrient principles; (4) fuel cells that do not use fossil fuels to create electricity; and (5) landfill gas and anaerobically digested waste biogas; I. “ renewable portfolio standard ” means the minimum percentage of retail sales of electricity by a public utility

to electric consumers in New Mexico that is required by the Renewable Energy Act to

be from renewable energy; J. “ renewable purchased power agreement ” means an agreement that binds an entity generating power from renewable energy resources

to provide power at a specified price and binds the purchaser to that price; K. “ zero carbon resource ” means an electricity generation resource that emits no carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,

or that reduces methane emitted into the atmosphere in an amount equal to no less

than one-tenth of the tons of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere, as a result

of electricity production; and L. “ zero carbon resource standard ” means providing New Mexico public utility customers with electricity generated from

one hundred percent zero carbon resources.