PNM customers saw a steep increase in power outages in 2024
Customers of New Mexico's largest electric utility experienced a sharp increase in power outages last year following a steady rise in service disruptions over the past decade, a new report shows.
Public Service Company of New Mexico's power reliability report is the first one the utility has submitted to state regulators since the Public Regulation Commission passed a rule last year requiring annual reporting of outages.
PNM says its overall system reliability is still 99.85% — lower than in recent years but above nationwide averages.
It saw increases last year in most of the metrics by which it measures system reliability, including the total cumulative number of outage minutes and outage frequency.
PNM customers went without power for an average cumulative total of about 4.6 hours in 2024 — more than double the year before, at 1.8 hours, and the highest number the utility has counted in the last 10 years by far.
Excluding what utilities call "major event days," characterized by long power interruptions, usually caused by major weather events, the average cumulative outage time per customer was just over two hours, or 124 minutes, compared to an average of about 1.5 hours the year before.
PNM counted six major event days in 2024, which is the highest number the utility has ever counted in one year, said Omni Warner, the company's vice president of operations and engineering.
Those included two days of disastrous fires in and around Ruidoso, severe thunderstorms from a heavy monsoon season and an early snowstorm in Santa Fe and Albuquerque in November.
The New Mexican in October reported an increase in power outages for PNM customers last year, including several widespread power outages in the Santa Fe area over the summer.
Warner said much of the increase could be attributed to storms during the "very active" monsoon season, with the wind, rain and lightning damaging the utility's infrastructure.
Cumulative outage times for PNM customers in the the Santa Fe area nearly doubled in 2024 from the year before, and outage frequency increased as well, but average restoration times decreased, according to the report.
Each PNM customer saw about 1.3 outages on average, or about one outage per customer with major event days excluded. The outage frequency in 2024 was the second highest in the last 10 years, next to 2018.
The system overall saw a minor drop in average restoration time — with major event days excluded — from 127 minutes in 2023 to 123.5 minutes in 2024. The restoration time has increased over the last 10 years.
The top cause of power outages for PNM in 2024 — according to the report — was equipment failures, such as cable faults, which caused about 44% of outages.
"Our original cabling, years ago, that we put in the ground was direct buried cable," Warner said. "It's served our customers very well for 40 years, but some of that cabling is starting to fail. When we replace the cabling, we place it in a conduit so it has more resiliency. It also allows us to replace cable faster, so we have a lot of that mapped on our system. We've been aggressively replacing cable."
He referred to a few particularly large power outages in Santa Fe in 2024 that came when entire substations tripped offline. He said damages to the utility's infrastructure came from lightning strikes, which destroyed switch gears and other equipment; crews worked through the night to make repairs.
Lightning strikes caused 9.2% of outages in 2024.
Much of the utility's infrastructure is aging, Warner acknowledged, and the utility is working to ramp up replacement and modernization of many parts of the grid, which he said will increase reliability.
Public Regulation Commissioner Patrick O'Connell said Friday the requirement for system reliability reporting is aimed at increasing transparency, "to help focus on whether investments are being made where they're needed the most."
The reports are meant to provide a foundation by which ramped-up investments can be measured, he said.
"Without the information it's hard to know," he said. "It will be very helpful to have this kind of information when we're looking at grid modernization and some other upcoming investments."
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