AMI recommended to underpin New Mexico grid modernisation

A grid modernisation roadmap has been released to transition New Mexico to a 100% zero carbon electricity powered future.

The roadmap, the outcome of extensive industry input, sets out a broad range of actions that the state’s electricity providers and others could undertake to achieve grid modernisation by 2030 in what is described as a “multi-faceted regulatory and policy landscape” with ageing physical infrastructure.

Part of this complexity is in the variety of the electricity providers, which includes three main investor-owned utilities and sixteen rural electric cooperatives.

The recommendation to invest in advanced metering infrastructure is notable as New Mexico has been a laggard with one of the lowest penetrations in the US. So far the AMI deployments in the state have been led by the rural electric cooperatives, primarily for the purposes of collecting usage data and more efficient billing. None of the state’s IOUs have adopted AMI.

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There is a concern, however, about the upfront capital cost with an estimated per meter cost of $200 to $600, while also there is regulatory uncertainty continuing from the regulator’s previous denial of an AMI cost installation recovery request from PNM, one of the state’s main IOUs.

Another recommendation is to update New Mexico’s interconnection rule and manual, with the volume of distributed generation connection requests having increased since the last update, while also the standards for advanced inverters should be updated to reflect the latest technological capabilities.

Others are to create a statewide transmission planning group and to plan the strategic deployment of storage on the New Mexico grid.

Grid modernisation critical issues

Alongside these recommendations, a number of issues were considered to be critical for grid modernisation but failed to gain consensus in terms of implementation. Among these were the standardising and coordinating of utility integrated resource plan requirements, development of rate designs that value distributed energy resources and the creation of pathways for low and moderate-income communities to benefit from grid modernisation.

Regional integration, occurring to some extent through the Southwest Power Pool, was felt to merit more discussion through a state task force.

Further concepts that gained only limited support were the engagement of customers in demand response and the creation of utility distribution system plans, given their complexity and the possibility of rapid obsolescence as the grid changes.

The roadmap was prepared for the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, which has stated it to be a complement to its Grid Modernisation Grant Programme set up to support local demonstration projects that advance understanding of grid modernisation technologies and customer behaviour.

The first award to the City of Albuquerque is focused on providing real-time visibility on energy storage, renewable generation and building control resources.

The Department says it looks forward to continuing conversations with communities about prospective projects and proposals will be reviewed under the existing request for applications.