|
News
Hundreds Pay Respects to King
Three Trails in 30 Years
Around the Area
Briefs
Range of Projects Displayed at Expo
Estancia Teen Gets Worldwide Education
CNM To Offer Courses in Edgewood
DWI Memorial Needs Help To Stay Open
Bidding Process To Start on Arts Center
Mother of 5 Arrested in Fatal Stabbing
More
News
|
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Co-Op Says Its Hands Are Tied On High Rates
Mountain View Telegraph
Some directors of Central New Mexico Electric Cooperative expressed frustration recently at high electric rates— but were unable to come up with any ideas about how to lower them.
"I know that people in the valley can't afford to pay these kinds of prices electrically, but it's a never ending battle. There's nothing we can do," Mike Valdez, District 2 director, said in a phone interview.
Part of the high rates can be attributed to the current state Public Regulation Commission investigations of the co-op, according to John Wheeler, general manager and CEO.
"This fiasco going on right now" could potentially cost consumers $250,000, Wheeler told board members at the board meeting in Mountainair on March 27.
The PRC has issued two orders regarding the co-op. The first order is a suspension of Advice Notice 55 concerning Rate 25, a planned reduction in off-peak hours.
An Advice Notice must be filed with the PRC for rate changes proposed by a cooperative.
The second PRC order begins two investigations. One is for Advice Notice 54, a proposal by CNME to cancel Rate 29, a commercial time-of-use rate. The second investigation is focused on Rate 25, a residential time-of-use rate.
"If we had continued to try to get approval by the PRC" of Advice Notice 55 it could have potentially cost the co-op $20,000 a month during the winter heating season plus at least $125,000 in legal costs and consulting fees, Wheeler said.
The PRC has not ruled on the request by CNME to withdraw Advice Notice 55. "The case could take three weeks to a month," said Paul Carbajal, public information officer.
"We probably should have done more research than we did with Advice Notice 55. I don't know whether we didn't realize that information was available at Tri-State (Generation and Transmission Association of Colorado) or what we were going on, (maybe) a gut feeling on Advice Notice 55 and what we knew about consumer usage pattern which turned out not to be true," Wheeler said about why the co-op has filed a motion with the PRC to withdraw Advice Notice 55 and file Advice Notice 56.
"How we came up with (Advice Notice 56) is that we were able to get more information than we had originally on Tri-State," the co-op's power supplier, Wheeler said.
At the meeting, Wheeler expressed surprise that there have been no interveners in the case.
"I was blown away yesterday," Wheeler said at the meeting.
"As frustrated as they were over rates, you would think that they would want to stand up there and make those same comments to the commission," Wheeler said in a phone interview.
The difference between an intervener and an individual member of the public is that an intervener represents an "entity like the city or county or state" with a more formal process to follow in submitting comments, Carbajal said.
The deadline has passed for any one group to became an intervener in any of the CNME investigations, Carbajal said.
Directors also discussed a statement made at the public hearing regarding a mortgage represented in the co-op's financial statements and presented by Barbee Word, a partner with Bolinger, Segars, Gilbert & Moss, LLP.
CNME agreed to finance Wheeler's house for an employee so she could buy it. "This is the note that (she) owes on the house," Word said in a phone interview.
At the end of 2007 the amount owed was $38,336.
Directors talked about how growth of the co-op prevented them from retiring any margins to consumers. Excess money made by a not-for-profit like CNME is called a margin and will be allocated back to members in the form of capital credits or margins.
"The growth means that you have to build new lines and new substations, and when you do that you have to understand that, in my particular opinion, you have to borrow part of that money," Wheeler said.
From 1956-64 the co-op accrued $510,125 that it retired as margins to members, Word said.
Currently there is a total of $15.2 million "that has not been retired to members," Word said.
"Until the co-op gets 30 percent equity they can't retire any margins" without Rural Utility Service approval, Word said.
Equity is profit or accumulated margin that has not been retired, Word said.
Also in the co-op's financial statement is a breakdown of compensation for its directors.
Directors receive $75 per day for attending board meetings, $100 a day for attendance at meetings outside the service area, mileage for driving their vehicles to meetings, air travel by coach class for out-of-state travel, and $25 in-state and $35 out-of-state per diem for meals. Board members also receive medical insurance benefits paid by the co-op, and medical insurance for their family if they pay 20 percent of the cost, Wheeler explained in an e-mail.
The total amount of directors fees and expenses from Word's financial statements came to $131,941 at the end of 2007.
"The insurance is the biggest thing" included in that total, Word said.
Hours proposed
Central New Mexico Electric Cooperative filed a motion with the state Public Regulation Commission to withdraw Advice Notice 55 and to dismiss the first PRC order concerning Rate 25, a planned reduction in off-peak hours, according to a PRC press release. The co-op is new hours through Advice Notice 56, which are:
Winter season:
On-peak— 6:30 to 9 a.m., and 4:30 to 10:30 p.m. (81/2 hours);
Off-peak— 10:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m., and 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (151/2 hours)
Summer season:
On-peak— 4:30 to 10:30 p.m. (6 hours)
Off-peak— 10:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. (18 hours)
|
E-mail Story
Print Friendly
