Portland, Maine (Platts)--1Mar2011/422 pm EST/2122 GMT
Xcel Energy asked New Mexico regulators Monday for a $19.9 million, or 6.9%, electric rate hike to pay for infrastructure projects. The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission has a year to consider the rate request for Southwestern Public Service, an Xcel subsidiary. Over the next five years, Xcel plans to spend about $2 billion to retrofit power plants to make them more efficient and to reduce air emissions, improve capacity and reliability on its transmission and distribution grid, and develop its workforce in New Mexico and Texas, the utility said. "Our rates must generate enough revenue to maintain strong credit ratings and raise capital to fund the improvements that will make our system more efficient, more reliable, and more cost effective," Riley Hill, SPS president and CEO, said in a statement Tuesday. SPS last had a New Mexico rate hike in mid-2009. The utility has about 104,000 customers in New Mexico. --Ethan Howland, newsdesk@platts.comSimilar stories appear in Electric Power Daily. See more information at http://bit.ly/ElectricPowerDaily