El Paso Electric

Metallic balloons make nice gifts, but they play havoc with power lines.  Each year, Mylar balloons cause power disruptions that impact thousands of homes and businesses.

As directed by the El Paso City Council, El Paso Electric filed a rate case with the City today.

David W. Stevens, Chief Executive Officer of the El Paso Electric (EPE) Company, notified the Board of Directors in a letter on January 30 that he is resigning his position effective March 2, 2012 to pursue another job opportunity.

El Paso Electric broke ground today on the addition to the area’s power generation.  EPE will be adding Rio Grande 9, a simple-cycle aeroderivative gas turbine. 

El Paso Electric is pleased to announce the following promotions.

In observance of the Christmas Day Holiday, El Paso Electric (EPE) business offices, including customer payment centers, in Texas and New Mexico will close at noon on Friday, Dec. 23 and all day on Monday, December 26. 

El Paso Electric urges you to give yourself and your loved ones the gift of electrical safety this holiday season. 

On October 28, El Paso Electric celebrated the addition of the 52 kiloWatt (kW) Wrangler Solar Facility to its power generation mix. 

NRG Solar, El Paso Electric and First Solar, Inc., welcomed New Mexico's top officials at their 20 megawatt Roadrunner Solar Generating Facility to mark the start of energy production from the state's second-largest photovoltaic project.

El Paso Electric employees have contributed more than 12,650 hours to community service in the past year.  This accomplishment was cause for celebration at EPE’s Annual Volunteers in Action Breakfast on Sept. 29 at the El Paso Marriott Hotel.  EPE employees were honored for their contributions to the community and 5 awards were presented to recognize dedicated volunteer service.

El Paso Electric is now receiving 25 MW of renewable energy from two solar power plants in New Mexico.  The energy purchases are part of El Paso Electric’s ongoing program to supplement its energy mix with renewable energy sources.

El Paso Community College and El Paso Electric announce a project to install a solar energy system.

On June 17, 2011, Governor Perry signed into law Senate Bill 1910 which requires El Paso Electric to offer rollback net metering to owners of small distributed renewable generation facilities. Rollback net metering will provide qualifying facilities the greatest benefit as compared to the other metering options.

El Paso Independent School District will celebrate three years of energy efficiency projects at a check presentation on Aug. 9. The district’s Board of Directors and staff will accept a check for the $128,116 in incentives it has earned from El Paso Electric’s SCORE Program.

Due to an increase in both natural gas prices and the use of natural gas-fired generation to serve growing electricity consumption over recent months, El Paso Electric, on July 15, 2011, filed a request with the Public Utility Commission of Texas to increase its fuel factor charge. 

Two new solar projects will start to take shape soon in the El Paso area.  Contracts for solar installations at the Stanton Tower and the Wrangler Substation have been signed.  The projects are part of a $10 million commitment that El Paso Electric made to build more solar power in the region through 2012. 

On June 28, 2011, El Paso Electric (EPE) issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to obtain offers for dispatchable power resources with peaking and cycling capability.  EPE seeks supply-side and demand-side proposals that offer low-cost, reliable electric resource option(s) that best meet its “peaking” capacity need of approximately 60 to 100 MW during its summer hours in 2014 and 2015 and 160 to 200 MW in 2016. 

As of today, the Wallow Fire in Arizona and New Mexico does not pose a significant danger to El Paso Electric’s transmission lines.  The fire is 67 percent contained.

El Paso Electric has appointed Robert Clay Doyle to serve as Vice President of Transmission and Distribution. 

More than 4,400 people are assisting in the firefighting efforts related to the Wallow Fire in Arizona and New Mexico.   The fire continues to be more than 50 percent contained.  The weather has cooperated in the past few days and conditions are expected to remain stable for the next 48 hours.

The Wallow Fire in Arizona is now more than 50 percent contained.  However, over the weekend, high winds moved the fire closer to El Paso Electric’s 345 kV transmission line near Springerville, Arizona.  It is now 13 miles away.

El Paso Electric has submitted an application for grant funding to the Department of Energy under its Clean Cities Community Readiness and Planning for Plug-in Electric Vehicles and Charging Infrastructure funding program. 

The Wallow Fire in Arizona is now more than 50 percent contained.  However, due to the shift and increased nature of the winds yesterday, the fire moved a little closer to El Paso Electric’s 345 kV transmission line near Springerville, Arizona.  It is now 13 miles away.

Conditions at the Wallow Fire in Arizona continue to improve.  The fire is now more than 30 percent contained.   

According to reports from fire managers, conditions at the Wallow Fire in Arizona continue to improve.  The fireline in the northeast sector of the fire has not progressed toward an El Paso Electric 345 kV transmission line near Springerville, Arizona.  Because of these improving conditions, El Paso Electric is suspending its daily updates on the fire.  These may resume if the situation with the Wallow Fire changes.

Reports today indicate that the Wallow Fire in Arizona is 6 percent contained.  The fire line in the northeast sector, the area closest to El Paso Electric’s 345kV Springerville transmission line, has not progressed within the past several days and it continues to be approximately 15 miles away from EPE’s transmission line.

Reports today indicate that the Wallow Fire in Arizona is 5 percent contained with containment lines established on the northeast side of the fire.  That is the sector closest to El Paso Electric’s 345 kV Springerville transmission Line. The fire line in the northeast sector has not progressed within the past few days and it continues to be approximately 15 miles away from EPE’s transmission lie.

Reports today indicate that the Arizona Wallow Fire is five percent contained in the northeast sector, which is the sector closest to El Paso Electric’s 345 kV Springerville transmission line.  The fire line in the northeast sector has not progressed within the past few days and it continues to be approximately 15 miles away from EPE’s transmission line.

Recent reports from the Wallow Fire in Arizona indicate that winds are not as strong as in recent days.  The fire line in the northern sector of the Wallow Fire, which is closest to El Paso Electric’s Springerville transmission line, appears to be holding but it is not contained. The fire is still approximately 15 miles away from the line.  El Paso Electric continues to prepare for the possibility of an outage of the transmission line.

The Wallow Fire in eastern Arizona is approximately 15 miles from El Paso Electric’s Springerville-Luna transmission line.  The pace of the fire’s movement depends on the weather conditions in the area.  So far, approximately 389,000 acres have been burned. 1,943 fire fighters are currently working to contain this wild fire.

The Wallow Fire in eastern Arizona, which has grown to more than 233,000 acres and has resulted in the evacuations of nearby communities, is dangerously close to key transmission line facilities located near Springerville, Arizona. 

In observance of the Memorial Day Holiday, El Paso Electric will close its business offices in Texas and New Mexico on Monday, May 30, 2011. 

On April 30, 2011, the steam turbine of El Paso Electric’s Newman Power Plant Unit 5 began commercial operation. 

Hector R. Puente, El Paso Electric’s Vice President of Transmission and Distribution, has been promoted to Senior Vice President of Operations for EPE.  In his new position, Puente will oversee power generation, transmission and distribution and  system operations for EPE.

El Paso Electric will close its business offices in Texas and New Mexico on Friday, April 22, 2011. 

El Paso Electric urges you to give yourself and your loved ones the gift of electrical safety this holiday season. 

The City of El Paso and El Paso Electric (EPE) will be offering $1.35 million to home- and business-owners for the installation of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, commonly known as solar energy systems. 

New Mexico customers can pick-up 4 FREE CFLs. El Paso Electric wants to help its New Mexico customers reduce their electricity usage by giving away compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs the first two Saturdays in November.

El Paso Electric employees have contributed more than 14,000 hours to community service in the past year.  This accomplishment was cause for celebration at EPE’s Annual Volunteers in Action Breakfast on Sept. 30 at the El Paso Marriott Hotel.  EPE employees were honored for their contributions to the community and 11 awards were presented to recognize dedicated volunteer service.

El Paso Electric today announced that George A. Williams has resigned as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer to pursue other professional opportunities.

The El Paso Electric Board of Directors has promoted Mary E. Kipp to serve as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer.

El Paso Electric (EPE) issues its All-Sources Request for Proposals (RFP) on June 14, 2010. EPE seeks supply-side, including renewable energy resources, and/or demand-side proposals to meet its load requirement in 2015.

In recent weeks El Paso Electric has learned that individuals claiming to work with El Paso Electric and a program called Año Completo have contacted some of our customers.

El Paso Electric’s Santa Teresa, New Mexico service territory is now benefitting from the installation of smart grid technology thanks to the completion of Phase 1 of a distribution automation project.

Due to the drop in natural gas prices over recent months, El Paso Electric, on May 12, filed a request with the Public Utility Commission of Texas to implement an interim refund of fuel costs billed under its fuel factor through March 2010.

The first participant in El Paso Electric’s Refrigerator/Freezer Recycle Program will be recognized by El Paso Electric.

El Paso Electric customers can now qualify for up to a $315 rebate toward replacing older refrigerators and freezers with newer, Energy Star certified units, as long as they have the older ones picked up for free and recycled to receive an additional $30 reward.

El Paso Electric will close its Customer Services Offices and Call Center on Thursday, April 1 to implement a new customer care system. All EPE offices will be closed on April 2 in observance of the Easter holiday.

El Paso Electric and the Department of Energy (DOE) have signed a grant agreement that will provide El Paso Electric with up to $1,014,414 to help fund the implementation of smart grid technology in its service territory.

El Paso Electric will be holding a series of public meetings with its New Mexico residential customers to discuss changes to residential electric service rates that were recently approved by the New Mexico Public Regulatory Commission and how those changes will affect New Mexico residential customers.

The El Paso Electric team will include linemen, meter readers, power plant operators, accountants, customer service reps, engineers and eight breast cancer survivors. The El Paso Electric team numbers more than 280 participants including employees, their families and friends who have signed-up for the 2010 Susan G. Komen El Paso Race for the Cure® on Sunday February 21 at Cohen Stadium.