Public Service Company of New Mexico has joined forces with Connecticut’s Avangrid in an $8 billion merger where both entities are hoping to take full advantage of their experience in renewable energy, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
With the marketplace constantly shifting, PNM officials added that they’re hoping the new partnership will make it easier for the small size company to acquire expensive new technology and “maximize use of the state’s abundant renewable energy sources” like solar and wind.
“That scale makes a difference,” Avangrid CEO Dennis Arriola told the Santa Fe New Mexican. “It helps us be more competitive, but ultimately it helps our customers.”
With the deal in the works for some time, officials from both companies have had to overcome tough resistance in New Mexico, where some have accused both companies of trying to roll over the state’s Public Regulation Commission, which is required to sign off on all such partnerships.
As part of the process, the Commission held several Zoom hearings during the month of August, with the hope being that the deal could be official by the end of the year.
One of those expressing reservations was Maryland utility attorney and author Scott Hempling, who said he had concerns the deal was too fixated on PNM shareholders’ profit.
PNM “is selling control of a public franchise for private gain,” Hempling said in May, appearing as an expert witness before the Attorney General’s Office during the exploration of the merger.
“Customer benefit was nearly irrelevant,” he added. “No one gathered or presented serious information, conducted serious analyses or made any serious plan about improving PNM’s performance. Customer benefits were beside the point.”
The world’s largest developer of renewable energy, Avangrid is on record in asserting it plans to fully decarbonize PNM’s electricity supply by 2035. The company has also committed to shelling out upwards of $90 million for investments that include rate reductions, customer debt forgiveness incurred during COVID, economic development and energy efficiency programs, the Albuquerque Journal reported. The company has also said it plans to preserve all PNM jobs for at least three years alone while adding at least 150 new jobs in New Mexico, when the state ranks only 44th out of 50 on the list of the country's strongest state economies and where unemployment ranks among the highest in the country.
The new positions are pegged to add upwards of $200 million in wages and economic development to New Mexico, according to the Albuquerque Journal, and Avangrid has also promised an additional $27.5 million in economic development funding, including at least $12.5 million for Indigenous groups in the Four Corners area.