Dive Brief:

• Public Service Company of New Mexico last week withdrew plans for a small gas-fired plant, informing regulators the proposed $100 million, 80-MW unit was no longer necessary, the Santa Fe New Mexican reports.  
• Regulators approved the plan in December, part of an arrangement to shutter two coal-fired units at the San Juan Generating Station. Some gas and solar had been planned to replace the capacity, along with retrofits to other coal units.
• The utility has also requested to end the discovery portion of the gas proceeding that had been starting up, drawing condemnation from at least one advocacy group.

Dive Insight:

PNM's data for its twenty year plan has raised eyebrows, most notably from New Energy Economy who has accused the utility of "fabricating" its demand forecast. 

Despite few objections to PNM's decision to halt plans for a natural gas plant and pipeline, the news outlet reports NEE's Executive Director Mariel Nanasi said the utility should still answer questions about the data underlying the proposal.

“Unfortunately, PNM has a habit of misrepresentation," Nanasi said in a statement to the news outlet. She argues that the state's Public Regulation Commission has failed to hold the utility accountable, and that PNM "presented fabricated data about alleged 'need.' In fact, consumer demand is actually going down."

PNM's plan had called for closing down more than 900 MW of coal capacity at the San Juan at the plant, and replacing it by burning more coal in the other two, retrofitted units. The plan also called for the 80 MW gas unit and a 140 MW of solar generation the utility would acquire through a power purchase agreement.

PNM previously requested the procedural schedule be dismissed, and said it intended to review its load forecast and then either dismiss the case or supplement the record by Nov. 21. But following discovery requests last week, the utility moved to halt discovery.

Also earlier this year, regulators slashed PNM's proposed rate increase request, approving a $61.2 million rate increase instead of the proposed $121 million. The issues centered around PNM's plan to replace lost capacity from the San Juan plant with generation from the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. PNM said it plans to appeal the regulators' decision in the New Mexico Supreme Court.