El Paso Electric proposes base rate increase

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KVIA) - El Paso Electric today announced they are filing a general rate case with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission or NMPRC, in support of local reliability and customer needs.

“We know that any increase in monthly bills affects our customers, especially during times of economic uncertainty,” said Kelly Tomblin, President and CEO of El Paso Electric. “However, we also know that the state of New Mexico has a meaningful vision for economic growth and that our customers expect EPE to maintain reliability and safety. The investments we have made are in line with that vision and those expectations and we plan to work with our customers to take advantage of every program we have to manage any bill increase.”

The utility stated the filing reflect the investments made to strengthen the grid, make reliability improvements, and efforts to support the growth of the community. A total of $400 million invested since 2020 according to El Paso Electric.

The proposed rate would adjust the base revenue deficiency of approximately $70 million in base rates.

Residential customers would see an increase of 49-cents per day during Phase I.

El Paso Electric said they are committed to helping customers and the proposal includes new Low-Income Riders that remove monthly customer charges for those households who qualify.

The rate proposal changes would be phased in over time for certain customers "to ease the transition".

During a presentation this morning, the utility said the new rate structures "ensures large load customers, like manufacturing, data centers, would pay their fair share" this is in consideration of the families and small businesses.

“We’re not asking customers to fund future projects,” added Tomblin. “This filing is about recovering the costs of work we’ve already done. Work that’s making our system stronger, safer, and more responsive to the needs of our communities.”

The NMPRC still needs to review the filing. Public input will be sought and the process usually takes up to a year.

EPE is set to host community meetings to hear from customers and answer questions. Date for the community meetings are scheduled for April 7-8.