2021 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 62 - Electric, Gas and Water Utilities
Article 15 - Rural Electric Cooperatives
Section 62-15-37 - Definitions; energy efficiency; renewable energy.

As used in the Rural Electric Cooperative Act:

A. "energy efficiency" means measures, including energy conservation measures, or programs that target consumer behavior, equipment or devices to result in a decrease in consumption of electricity without reducing the amount or quality of energy services;

B. "renewable energy" means electric energy generated by use of renewable energy resources and delivered to a rural electric cooperative;

C. "renewable energy certificate" means a certificate or other record, in a format approved by the public regulation commission, that represents all the environmental attributes from one megawatt-hour of electricity generated from renewable energy;

D. "renewable energy resource" means electric or useful thermal energy:

(1) generated by use of the following energy resources, with or without energy storage and delivered to a rural electric cooperative:

(a) solar, wind and geothermal;

(b) hydropower facilities brought in service on or after July 1, 2007;

(c) other hydropower facilities supplying no greater than the amount of energy from hydropower facilities that were part of an energy supply portfolio prior to July 1, 2007;

(d) fuel cells that do not use fossil fuels to create electricity;

(e) biomass resources, limited to agriculture or animal waste, small diameter timber, not to exceed eight inches, salt cedar and other phreatophyte or woody vegetation removed from river basins or watersheds in New Mexico; provided that these resources are from facilities certified by the energy, minerals and natural resources department to: 1) be of appropriate scale to have sustainable feedstock in the near vicinity; 2) have zero life cycle carbon emissions; and 3) meet scientifically determined restoration, sustainability and soil nutrient principles; and

(f) landfill gas and anaerobically digested waste biomass; and

(2) does not include electric energy generated by use of fossil fuel or nuclear energy;

E. "useful thermal energy" means renewable energy delivered from a source that can be metered and that is delivered in the state to an end user in the form of direct heat, steam or hot water or other thermal form that is used for heating, cooling, humidity control, process use or other valid end-use energy requirements and for which fossil fuel or electricity would otherwise be consumed;

F. "zero carbon resource" means an electricity generation resource that emits no carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, or that reduces methane emitted into the atmosphere in an amount equal to no less than one-tenth of the tons of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere, as a result of electricity production; and

G. "zero carbon resource standard" means providing New Mexico rural electric cooperative retail customers with electricity generated from one hundred percent zero carbon resources.

History: Laws 2007, ch. 4, § 4; 2015, ch. 64, § 2; 2015, ch. 71, § 2; 2019, ch. 65, § 27.

The 2019 amendment, effective June 14, 2019, defined "renewable energy", "renewable energy certificate", "zero carbon resource" and "zero carbon resource standard", and revised the definition of "renewable energy resource" as used in the Rural Electric Cooperative Act; added new Subsections B and C and redesignated former Subsection B as Subsection D; in Subsection D, in the introductory clause, after "renewable energy", added "resource", in Paragraph D(1), after "generated by use of", deleted "low- or zero-emissions generation technology with substantial long-term production potential; and", redesignated former Paragraph B(3) as Paragraph D(2), and deleted "generated by use of renewable" and added "the following", after "energy resources", deleted "that may include" and added "with or without energy storage and delivered to a rural electric cooperative", in Subparagraph D(1)(a), after "geothermal", deleted "resources", in Subparagraph D(1)(b), after "service", added "on or", and added new Subparagraph D(1)(c) and redesignated former Subparagraphs B(2)(c) and B(2)(d) as Subparagraphs D(1)(d) and D(1)(e), respectively; in Subparagraph D(1)(d), after "fuel cells that", deleted "are" and added "do", after "not", added "use", and after "fossil", deleted "fueled" and added "fuels to create electricity", in Subparagraph D(1)(e), after "biomass resources", deleted "such as" and added "limited to", after "diameter timber", added "not to exceed eight inches", and after "New Mexico;", added the remainder of the subparagraph, and in Subparagraph D(1)(f), deleted "but" and added "and"; and added Subsections F and G.

The 2015 amendment, effective July 1, 2015, added "useful thermal energy" to the definitions of the Rural Electric Cooperative Act; in Subsection A, after "energy services", deleted "and"; in Subsection B, after "electric", added "or useful thermal"; in Paragraph (3) of Subsection B, after "nuclear energy", added "and"; and added Subsection C.