Jul 1 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Michael G. Murphy Albuquerque Journal, N.M.

New Mexico's four largest electric utilities on Monday issued a request for proposals for a large-scale solar generating plant that could provide electricity for up to 52,000 homes.

Public Service Company of New Mexico, El Paso Electric, Xcel Energy and Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association jointly issued the request, seeking detailed plans from solar developers for construction of a solar parabolic trough generation plant to feed power to each of the utilities by 2012.

In a small-population state like New Mexico, it makes sense for utilities to join forces on such a project to seek economies of scale and to meet alternative energy mandates from regulators, PNM spokesman Jeff Buell told the Journal late Monday.

"The four of us directly or indirectly provide electricity to almost every customer in the state," Pat Vincent, PNM Utilities president, said in a statement.

El Paso Electric spokesman Henry Quintana said it is not unusual to work together with other utilities on shared power projects, noting that El Paso and PNM both went into the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station together. "This (the solar plant) is just a project all four of us were interested in," he said.

RFP requirements include:

Locating the plant in New Mexico.

Using parabolic trough technology.

Encouraging thermal energy storage.

Being able to deliver between 211,000 and 375,000 megawatt-hours per year (enough to power between 29,000 and 52,000 average New Mexico homes).

"Each of the utilities has shown tremendous leadership by coming together as partners for renewable energy," Vincent said.

None of the utilities had an idea what such a plant might cost, but each utility would financially support it through some sort of purchased power agreements for the electricity generated. "All the costs would be rolled into that," Buell said.

The cost of the plant eventually would go into customer rates pending regulatory approval, he said.

The RFP follows a feasibility study performed by the Electric Power Research Institute last year that found that the most feasible solar technology currently available for a largescale plant here is parabolic trough.

It utilizes a series of troughshaped mirrors to focus sunlight onto an oil-filled tube, and then uses the hot oil to generate steam. The steam is used to turn a generator, producing electricity. When combined with thermal energy storage, this solar technology is capable of generating electricity at night, as well as during cloudy periods, the utilities said in a joint news release.

The parabolic trough technology looks the most promising and most economically feasible, in part because it has been field tested the most, Buell said.

The study also mentioned that potential locations could be near Albuquerque or Lordsburg in southwest New Mexico, although no more specific information on potential sites was available, Tri-State spokesman Jim Van Someren said.

If the RFP process is successful, the utilities plan to have a contract negotiated by the end of 2008, and the solar facility could be generating electricity by 2011.

Tri-State, which is the primary electric provider for most electric cooperatives in New Mexico, said partnering with the other companies was the best way to meet renewable mandates but also because "our board has made a commitment to balanced (energy) resource planning and development. Solar in certain parts of our service territory holds a lot of promise," Van Someren said.

Buell added, "We are very hopeful we can find a project that works technologically and economically."

El Paso Electric primarily serves southern New Mexico, including the Las Cruces area. Xcel serves the Clovis area and other portions of eastern New Mexico, and Tri-State handles most of the co-ops in central, western and northern New Mexico.

PNM has 487,000 electric customers, mostly in the Albuquerque and Santa Fe areas.