Dive Brief:
- "Weather-normalized" electric sales for Public Service Co. of New Mexico, a PNM Resources subsidiary, fell 1.8% last year, mainly because of the loss of an industrial customer, company officials said Friday during an earnings conference call with analysts. Residential sales fell 0.7% and commercial sales dropped 0.8%.
- In contrast, sales at PNM Resources' Texas-New Mexico Power, which serves parts of Texas, jumped 2.6% last year, reflecting the strong economy in the state.
- PNM is on track to retire two coal-fired units at the 1,800-MW San Juan power plant by 2018 and replace the generation with a mix unregulated nuclear capacity, natural gas-fired generation and solar, officials said.
Dive Insight:
The electric sales of PNM Resources' two utilities are a tale of two economies. Texas is booming while New Mexico is in the doldrums. Pat Vincent-Collawn, PNM Resources chairman, president and CEO, noted that New Mexico's economy depends heavily of governmental entities, which have been facing cutbacks.
