ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Nov. 15, 2001 – PNM, Public Service Company of New Mexico today broke ground on a new power plant in southern New Mexico.
“Building a new generating station reinforces our commitment to expand our wholesale business focus,” said PNM Executive Vice President Bill Real. “It is also part of our promise to invest in New Mexico in order to improve the reliability of the regional power supply.”
The plant, to be called Afton Generating Station, will be constructed adjacent to an El Paso Natural Gas Company compression station near Las Cruces, N.M. Afton is scheduled to be in commercial operation by the end of October 2002. The plant will produce 135 megawatts (MW) of electricity in its initial, simple cycle phase. PNM plans to expand the plant to a combined-cycle facility, with an output of approximately 225 MW, by the last quarter of 2003.
The new plant will be a part of PNM’s resource portfolio providing power to the Western wholesale market. PNM recently announced a contract with Texas-New Mexico Power Co. (TNP) to provide electricity for that company’s customers in southern New Mexico. The new station will be part of that resource mix.
PNM is a combined electric and gas utility serving approximately 1.3 million people in New Mexico. The company also sells power on the wholesale market in the Western U.S. PNM stock is traded primarily on the NYSE under the symbol PNM. For more information about PNM, see the company’s web site at https://www.pnm.com .
