PNM To Supply Ariz

PNM To Supply Ariz. City

Jun 22 - Albuquerque Journal

Electric Contract Is for 10 Years

Public Service Company of New Mexico has signed a 10-year wholesale contract to supply up to 10 megawatts of electricity to the city of Mesa, Ariz., the company said in a news release this week.

PNM expects the deal will produce about $1.6 million in additional revenue in 2004. The contract begins in July and will extend through 2013.

The new contract is in addition to a 35-megawatt wholesale power contract PNM signed with the city in December.

Under that deal, PNM replaced Ohio-based American Electric Power as the supplier to complete a contract that runs through 2013. PNM said it expected that contract would bring in about $12 million in 2004.

PNM also signed a deal in April to supply 5 megawatts of power to Pinal County Electric District Number 2 in southern Arizona.

New Mexico's largest utility said it will supply power for the contracts from its own power plants and power it has contracted to buy.

Mesa's municipal utility supplies nearly 16,000 residential and commercial customers.

PNM owns or leases about 2,500 megawatts of generating capacity, including 390 megawatts at the Palo Verde nuclear plant near Phoenix, a total of 957 at the San Juan and Four Corners coal- fueled plants near Farmington, 395 megawatts at four gas-fueled plants, and 200 megawatts of wind-generated power.

Last year PNM signed four long-term contracts to supply about 200 megawatts of power to wholesale customers in Arizona, California, Nevada and the Pacific Northwest.

PNM's revenues from selling wholesale power soared by more than $200 million to $550 million in 2003; they were $343 million in 2002.

For far more extensive news on the energy/power visit: http://www.energycentral.com .