A nominating committee interviewed the first set of candidates for appointment to the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission on Wednesday.

The nominating committee will provide a recommendation to the governor about who to appoint to serve on the PRC. There is one seat up for appointment this year. That position is currently occupied by Commissioner James Ellison, who is among the candidates that the nominating committee is considering.

The PRC is an important regulatory body that oversees most of the electric utilities in New Mexico as well as some of the water utilities and the natural gas utilities. The commissioners play an important role in determining how much renewable energy comes onto the grid and how much people pay in utility rates. The commission also works in regulating broadband in the state.

Earlier this month, the nominating committee chose seven candidates to interview. Three of those candidates were interviewed on Wednesday and the remaining three will be interviewed today. Colin Walcavich failed to show up for his interview slot on Wednesday.

The appointed commissioner will serve a six-year term.

The full interviews with each candidate can be viewed here.

Steve Meyer

The interviews started with Steve Meyer, a Taos County resident who said his platform focuses on representing rural New Mexico and improving energy efficiency. Meyer said he has written a blueprint for how to implement an energy efficiency program in rural New Mexico. He said it involves having technicians go into a home and analyze energy efficiency and provide the homeowners with the information about what options are available to them to improve their energy efficiency.

“Ideally, I’d love to see this being operated by rural co-ops,” he said.

Meyer acknowledged that asking coops to do so could be outside of the PRC’s purview.

“The idea of eliminating waste first is, I think, the correct way to approach the energy transition,” he said.

Meyer said that could reduce the amount of renewable energy that needs to be built.

Meyer said the utilities could also take steps to be more energy efficient.

He said that in New Mexico, 69 percent of the energy generated is wasted. He said that is in part because the heat generated by turning turbines is not captured and that is a form of energy waste.

He said he has experience in business transformation work for major companies including General Motors and the Rolls-Royce Aerospace Group.

“I think my experience of managing extremely complex organizations would benefit the PRC,” he said. 

Blessing Chukwu

Chukwu recently retired from the Arizona Corporation Commission, which is the Arizona equivalent of the PRC. She has also worked in utility regulation in Oklahoma. At both entities, she worked as staff for the regulatory agency.

“While a commissioner does not need to be an expert, a commissioner needs to have some sort of experience to be able to analyze and comprehend what staff presents,” she said.

If appointed to the commission, Chukwu said that she will not be able to speak with utilities or intervening parties as she did during her work as a staff member of the ACC. That is because speaking with utilities or intervening parties about a pending case can be a violation of the law for commissioners.

Chukwu has worked in various capacities for the regulatory agencies and has experience in electric and water utilities, telecommunications and other areas.

“I have done it all,” she said. “So I think that my experience prepares me to be in that kind of position, especially having the expertise, the depth and breadth of my knowledge I think it has helped me.”

Chukwu ranked herself high in many of the areas that the nominating committee believes are important for commissioners including understanding utility operations, accounting and finances, business management, leadership and consumer advocacy. 

She ranked herself lower in understanding of energy markets.

“I’m not an expert in that one, but I’m willing to learn,” she said about energy markets.

While the ACC is similar to New Mexico’s PRC, there are some key differences. For example, the commissioners in the ACC are elected. The PRC recently changed from an elected body of five commissioners to an appointed body of three commissioners.

“Commissions that are appointed tend to be more technical in nature compared to the ones that are elected,” Chukwu said. “The ones that are elected tend to be more political.”

At the same time, Chukwu said the differences between the ACC and the PRC are not too extreme and that the regulatory bodies in both states collaborate and share ideas.

When asked about representing a new constituency, Chukwu spoke about what customers expect from utilities.

“Customers are the same, irrespective of wherever they are,” she said. “The customer expects to pay a rate that is affordable. The customer expects that when they flip the light, that it comes on, irrespective of wherever they are, be it in Arizona, be it in New Mexico or in Washington. The customer expects that they will have a reliable service, and that is sustainable, because they’re paying for it.”

Flavious Smith

Smith is a Texas resident who grew up in Tennessee on a farm. He spent most of his career in the energy industry, primarily focused on oil and gas, though he also has experience in coal and uranium. 

He said he wants to be a commissioner because the job is interesting and challenging.

“It’s something I feel like I can add a lot of value to,” he said.

Smith expressed some doubts about New Mexico’s ability to meet the goals of the Energy Transition Act.

“The act is aspirational in many ways because it assumes…that technology is going to catch up,” he said.

In particular, he pointed to battery storage technology as one of the things that he said needs to catch up.

Smith spoke about some of the energy issues in New Mexico, including the future of the coal-fired Four Corners Power Plant located on Navajo Nation lands west of Farmington. He discussed the plant with carbon capture technology or changing it to run off of natural gas rather than coal, both of which he said will be expensive. He said replacing it with solar could also be expensive.

Smith said regulatory agencies tend to be reactive by nature, but he emphasized the importance of taking proactive steps.

“You can be a little more proactive in working with the utilities,” he said.

Smith seemed confused when asked about the community solar program and had to be educated about what it was. When first asked about the community solar program, he spoke about the solar projects that are being built to replace the shuttered San Juan Generating Station. Community solar involves small arrays that investor-owned utility customers can subscribe to receive energy from. This is intended to benefit low-income households and people who are not able to install solar panels on their property. The program has experienced various delays and none of the approved projects have broken ground yet.