Having attended the recent stakeholder meeting held by PNM I realized something: Three of the four proposals put forth by PNM to replace the San Juan Generating Station are either unrealistic or illegal….
The one-pager is now online here. Of note is the fact that the extreme “renewable” plans (3 and 4) would make the grid unstable. No one wants that, so those are not really viable. But look at Option 2, the San Juan option.
PNM is purporting to replace 475 MW of San Juan Generating Station coal with 476 MW of San Juan natural gas. While this would be a reasonable option if you buy the “we must replace San Juan Generating Station” rhetoric, the fact is that the plan does not add any solar (or wind that is not already planned) to PNM’s portfolio. It would appear that PNM’s San Juan Plan wouldn’t comply with the 50% “renewable” mandate.
Are we wrong? If so, what are we wrong about? It appears that PNM is either finding it tough to come up with realistic solutions or they are just going with plan 1 no matter what.
