I would like to clarify Mr. Nick Naranjo’s paid advertisements in the Santa Fe New Mexican and Albuquerque Journal North, paid for by the members of Jemez Mountains Electric Cooperative.
The advertisement was a frail attempt by Naranjo to explain the actions of the Co-op Board of Trustees under his leadership regarding the Board’s decision to raise the rates for members with renewable energy facilities, such as solar arrays, that was published in the Rio Grande SUN on July 18.
Naranjo, writing on behalf of the Co-op as the Board president, states in the advertisement “…JMEC passed a change in policy to be implemented in the future regarding the billing on its net meter rate.” I would certainly hope that Naranjo knew the Co-op cannot change a rate (a tariff and in this instance Rate 14 [Standard Tariff for Electricity Purchases and Sales to Qualifying Facilities]), without approval from the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission.
So my question to Naranjo is, under his leadership why would he allow the Board to approve a significant rate change via an internal company policy when he knew full well the change was a direct violation of Commission procedures?
Assuming Naranjo did not know, at least the legal counsel or staff to the Board knew, this was a violation of New Mexico PRC Rule 540. So why would the Board president make this colossal mistake?
There are a lot of possibilities but one is that the Co-op is not charging its members the “true” cost for providing them electricity. Consequently, on Feb 8 my wife and I submitted a consumer complaint to the Commission asking it to intervene and direct the Co-op to follow the Commission’s procedures, Rule 540, in adopting a new net meter rate/tariff.
Our complaint, without question, was the principl3 reason “Representatives of JMEC met with Staff of the Utilities Division of the NMPRC back in March 2019 … and that no rate change had been implemented…”
Now that the Board is fully aware they made a mistake under Naranjo’s leadership, why have they waited for the past four months for the Commission to intervene? This is a very important rate that was approved in 2003 and truly needs some serious updating, soon.
In closing I would like to encourage the Co-op Board to remember “Such erroneous reporting leads to misinformation and confusion,” among its members, especially when not all of the relevant information was shared with its members.
Dave Neal
Co-op District 6 Member