El Paso Electric Allowed To Fall Short Of Goals Set By State

El Paso Electric customers will not see a difference in their monthly bill, thanks to a compromise between the El Paso City Council and the electric company.

On Tuesday, city council members agreed to allow the electric company to fall short of meeting energy-saving goals set by the state Legislature. The utility is required to increase its infrastructure that saves energy from 14 percent to about 25 percent in 2011, said City Rep. Steve Ortega.

The electric company can meet these goals by adopting energy efficient policies within the company or by encouraging and getting commercial or residential customers to do so, said Ortega.

However, on Tuesday, the El Paso City Council learned that company officials felt they could not meet the 25 percent goal set for 2011 without significantly increasing a customer fee.

That fee, on average, is about 50 cents per month for residential customers, said Norman Gordon, the city’s hired consultant on utilities. The council voted to accept the utility’s plan not to increase its energy-efficient infrastructure, and thus not increase the customer fee.

City representatives Eddie Holguin and Susie Byrd voted against the measure. Byrd said the utility had not provided enough information to prove why the company could not meet its goals. Holguin said the utility should meet its goals without having to charge customers for it.

There were no El Paso Electric officials at the city council meeting available for comment.

Ortega said that as the regulating agency for utility rates, the city has a responsibility to protect rate-payers.