SPI Insights

El Paso Electric (EPE) will host a pre-bid webcast at 2 p.m. MDT/ 3 p.m. CDT August 24 in advance of accepting bids for short-term and long-term power generating and renewable energy.

EPE is seeking renewable energy sources for its New Mexico customers by 2025 to meet increasing standards and projected energy demand there.

Initial resource planning studies by EPE project a New Mexico capacity need of approximately 40 megawatts (MW) in 2022 growing up to 90 MW in 2024, with 90 to 110 MW of capacity needed to meet its New Mexico customers’ long-term energy demand in 2025. New generation also is necessary to offset EPE’s planned retirements of older, less-efficient generating units.

As part of New Mexico’s Renewable Portfolio Standard, EPE will need an additional long-term resource that will generate approximately 175,000 megawatt hours (MWh) per year of additional renewable energy by December 2024.

EPE’s preference is for capacity resources that can provide high availability and guarantee generation output during peak hours in May through September, as well as guarantee a minimum annual generation output for renewable energy resources. EPE will consider acquiring a single resource or a combination of supply-side and/or demand-side resources that are proposed and evaluated in response to a request for proposals.