New Mexico § 62-6-26 - Economic development rates for gas and electric utilities; authorization

§ 62-6-26. Economic development rates for gas and electric utilities; authorization

A. The commission may approve or otherwise allow to become effective, as provided

in Subsection B of this section, applications from utilities or persons subject to

regulation pursuant to Subsection B of Section 62-6-4 NMSA 1978 or filings by cooperative utilities pursuant to Section 62-8-7 NMSA 1978 , as appropriate, for special rates or tariffs in order to prevent the loss of customers,

to encourage customers to expand present facilities and operations in New Mexico and

to attract new customers where necessary or appropriate to promote economic development

in New Mexico. Any such special rates or tariffs shall be designed so as to recover at least the

incremental cost of providing service to such customers. B. The commission may approve or otherwise allow to become effective applications

from utilities or persons subject to regulation pursuant to Subsection B of Section 62-6-4 NMSA 1978 and filings by cooperative utilities pursuant to Section 62-8-7 NMSA 1978 for economic development rates and rates designed to retain load for gas and electric

utility customers. For purposes of this section and Section 62-8-6 NMSA 1978 , economic development rates and rates designed to retain load are rates set at a

level lower than the corresponding service rate for which a customer would otherwise

qualify. C. Except as provided in Subsection D of this section, economic development rates

shall be approved or otherwise allowed to become effective for an electric utility

or persons subject to regulation pursuant to Subsection B of Section 62-6-4 NMSA 1978 or filings by cooperative utilities pursuant to Section 62-8-7 NMSA 1978 only when the utility or the substantially full requirements supplier of the utility

has excess capacity. For purposes of this section, “ excess capacity ” means the amount of electric generating and purchased power capacity available to

the utility or such supplier that is greater than the utility's or such supplier's

peak load plus a fixed percentage reserve margin set by the commission. D. Economic development rates may be approved or otherwise allowed to become effective

for electric utilities or persons subject to regulation pursuant to Subsection B of Section 62-6-4 NMSA 1978 or filings by cooperative utilities pursuant to Section 62-8-7 NMSA 1978 that do not meet the qualifications of Subsection C of this section; provided that

the following conditions are met: (1) economic development rates approved under this subsection shall not be lower than

the incremental cost of providing service to the economic development rate customer

as determined by the commission. As used in this subsection, “ economic development rate customer ” means a customer that directly benefits from the economic development rate established

pursuant to this subsection; and (2) an economic development rate approved for any customer under this subsection shall

last no longer than four years, except that the commission may approve the rate for

up to twelve additional months if it finds that the additional period is necessary

to attract a particular economic development rate customer to New Mexico. E. For purposes of this section, “ incremental cost ” at a minimum shall include all additional costs incurred to serve the economic development

rate customer that would not otherwise have been incurred to serve other customers,

fuel and purchased power costs, costs recoverable from customers pursuant to the Renewable

Energy Act and the Efficient Use of Energy Act and the direct costs of facilities

necessary to provide service to the customer. The commission shall not impute to the electric utility revenues that would have

been received from the economic development rate or load retention customer if they

had been provided service under the corresponding rate for which they would have otherwise

qualified.