Chapter 62 — Chapter 62

Any consumer or user may have any meter or measuring device tested by the utility once without charge after a reasonable period to be fixed by the commission by rule, and at shorter intervals upon payment of reasonable fees fixed by the commission. The commission shall declare an…

The commission and its officers and employees of the commission may during all reasonable hours, after reasonable notice to the utility, enter upon any premises occupied by any utility for the purpose of making examinations and tests and exercising any power provided for in this …

The commission shall have the right and is hereby empowered to adopt, promulgate and enforce such reasonable rules and regulations as may be required to protect users of gas or electricity from damage to their persons or property through the use of defective gas or electrical app…

power; complaint procedures. A. The commission may require electric utilities and rural electric cooperatives to furnish the commission with available information material to the reliability of electrical power grids within the state. B. To ensure efficient and reliable operation…

authorization. A. The commission may approve or otherwise allow to become effective, as provided in Subsection B of this section, applications from utilities or persons subject to regulation pursuant to Subsection B of Section 62-6-4 NMSA 1978 or filings by cooperative utilities …

authorization. The commission may approve or otherwise allow to become effective applications from public utilities, subject to the commission's jurisdiction under the Public Utility Act [Chapter 62, Articles 1 to 6 and 8 to 13 NMSA 1978], for clean fuel rates, tariffs or other p…

ANNOTATIONS Repeals. — Laws 1997, ch. 28, § 1 repealed 62-6-27, as enacted by Laws 1994, ch. 141, § 1, relating to gasoline sales information, effective June 20, 1997. For provisions of former section, see the 1996 NMSA 1978 on NMOneSource.com.

environment certification. A. The commission shall adopt rules to allow public utilities a reasonable opportunity to recover costs incurred by a public utility for the development and ongoing construction of a clean energy project. Such costs must not exceed the level authorized …

A. The commission shall have general and exclusive power and jurisdiction to regulate and supervise every public utility in respect to its rates and service regulations and in respect to its securities, all in accordance with the provisions and subject to the reservations of the …

A. The intent and purpose of this section is to encourage lower costs of natural gas for New Mexico consumers by providing competition in natural gas markets through contract carriage. Lower fuel costs are an integral part of New Mexico's economic development efforts because they…

A. Notwithstanding repeal of the Electric Utility Industry Restructuring Act of 1999, unless otherwise waived, a public utility shall be entitled to an opportunity to recover its transition costs. Utilities may retain these transition costs as a regulatory asset on their books pe…

acquisition and operation. A. A public utility may invest in, construct, acquire or operate a generating plant that is not intended to provide retail electric service to New Mexico customers, the cost of which is not included in retail rates and which business activities shall no…

A public utility that provides both electricity and natural gas distribution services shall not be required to functionally separate its electric and gas transmission, transportation and distribution operations from each other. Any rule or order to the contrary is void. Nothing i…

A. A franchise fee charge shall be stated as a separate line entry on a bill sent by a public utility or a distribution cooperative utility to a customer and shall only be recovered from a customer located within the jurisdiction of the government authority imposing the franchise…

Notwithstanding any of the provisions in Section 62-6-4 NMSA 1978, any municipality desiring to avail itself of all the benefits of the Public Utility Act [Articles 1 to 6 and 8 to 13 of Chapter 62 NMSA 1978] and of the regulatory services of the commission may elect to come with…

A. The power of a public utility to issue, assume or guarantee securities and to create liens on its property situated within this state is a special privilege subject to the supervision and control of the commission as set forth in the Public Utility Act [Chapter 62, Articles 1 …

Such public utility shall, by written petition filed with the commission and setting forth the pertinent facts involved, make application to the commission for an order authorizing the proposed issue, assumption or guarantee of securities, and the application of the proceeds ther…

A. A public utility may issue securities, other than stock or stock certificates, payable at periods of not more than eighteen months after the date of issuance of same, and secured or unsecured, without application to or order of the commission, but no such securities so issued …

Except as provided in Subsection E of Section 62-6-6 NMSA 1978 and notwithstanding any other provision of Sections 62-6-1 through 62-6-11 NMSA 1978, the commission shall have jurisdiction over and may regulate, by general order or regulation, securities of a public utility incorp…

All applications for the issuance, assumption or guarantee of securities shall be placed at the head of the commission's docket and shall be disposed of promptly, and within thirty days after petition is filed with the commission unless it is necessary for good cause to continue …

Every rate made, demanded or received by any public utility shall be just and reasonable. History: Laws 1941, ch. 84, § 37; 1941 Comp., § 72-601; 1953 Comp., § 68-6-1.

Utility service shall not be discontinued to any residence where a seriously or chronically ill person is residing if the person responsible for the utility service charges does not have the financial resources to pay the charges and if a licensed physician, physician assistant, …

A. A public utility, as defined pursuant to Section 62-3-3 NMSA 1978, or its employees or agents shall not sell or disclose consumers' nonpublic personal information without the customer's permission or unless it is in accordance with standardized credit reporting practices, purs…

A. No later than January 1, 2021, and thereafter upon request by the commission, but no more frequently than every two years, a public utility shall file with the commission an application to expand transportation electrification. Applications may include investments or incentive…

technology projects. A. A public utility may file an application with the commission to approve grid modernization projects that are needed by the utility, or upon request of the commission. Applications may include requests for approval of investments or incentives to facilitate…

As used in Chapter 62, Article 8 NMSA 1978: A. "advanced conductor" means a conductor that has a direct current electrical resistance at least ten percent lower than existing conductors of a similar diameter while simultaneously increasing the energy carrying capacity by at least…

Every public utility shall furnish adequate, efficient and reasonable service. History: Laws 1941, ch. 84, § 38; 1941 Comp., § 72-602; 1953 Comp., § 68-6-2.

Under such rules and regulations as the commission may prescribe, every public utility subject to the jurisdiction of the commission, shall file with the commission, within such time and in such form as the commission may designate, schedules showing all rates established by it a…

Such schedules filed by every public utility shall set forth the classification of users and the rates to be charged as to each classification; and every utility shall have the right to make reasonable classifications of its users. History: Laws 1941, ch. 84, § 40; 1941 Comp., § …

No public utility shall directly or indirectly, by any device whatsoever, or in anywise, charge, demand, collect or receive from any person a greater or less compensation for any service rendered or to be rendered by such public utility than that prescribed in the schedules of su…

No public utility shall, as to rates or services, make or grant any unreasonable preference or advantage to any corporation or person within any classification or subject any corporation or person within any classification to any unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage. No public …

A. At any hearing involving an increase in rates or charges sought by a public utility, the burden of proof to show that the increased rate or charge is just and reasonable shall be upon the utility. B. Unless the commission otherwise orders, no public utility shall make any chan…

sewer utilities. A. Whenever there is filed with the commission any schedule proposing any new rates pursuant to Section 62-8-7 NMSA 1978 by any public utility as defined in Paragraph (3) or (5) of Subsection G of Section 62-3-3 NMSA 1978 with equal to or fewer than an aggregate …

A. Each utility doing business in this state and subject to the control and jurisdiction of the commission with respect to its rates or service regulations shall pay annually to the state a fee for the inspection and supervision of such business in an amount equal to five hundred…

A. All fees and money collected under the provisions of the Public Utility Act [Articles 1 through 6 and 8 through 13 of Chapter 62 NMSA 1978], including fees provided for in Section 62-13-2 NMSA 1978 and including fees and charges for inspection and supervision, for stenographic…

The "utility oversight fund" is created as a nonreverting fund in the state treasury. The fund consists of fees collected pursuant to Sections 62-8-8, 62-8-9 and 63-7-20 NMSA 1978, as well as appropriations, gifts, grants and donations and earnings on investment of the fund. The …

A. No public utility shall begin the construction or operation of any public utility plant or system or of any extension of any plant or system without first obtaining from the commission a certificate that public convenience and necessity require or will require such constructio…

utilities. A. Notwithstanding any other provision of the Public Utility Act [Chapter 62, Articles 1 to 6 and 8 to 13 NMSA 1978], or any provision of the Municipal Code [Chapter 3 NMSA 1978, except Article 66], or any privilege granted under either act, if any municipality that ha…

A. Within sixty days after the effective date of this 1967 act, each utility brought within the jurisdiction of the commission by virtue of this 1967 act shall file with the commission an application, in such form as may be prescribed by the commission, for a certificate of publi…

Utility Act. Within six months after the effective date of these 1987 amendments to the Public Utility Act [Chapter 62, Articles 1 to 6 and 8 to 13 NMSA 1978], each sewer utility brought within the jurisdiction of the commission by virtue of these 1987 amendments to the Public Ut…

A. The legislature finds that it is in the public interest to consider any adverse effect upon the environment and upon the quality of life of the people of the state that may occur due to plants, facilities and transmission lines needed to supply present and future electrical se…

facilities. No municipality or H class county shall hereafter begin construction or operation of any jointly owned generating facility within this state without first obtaining from the commission a certificate that public convenience and necessity require or will require such co…

A. Unless otherwise agreed to by the parties, no person shall begin the construction of any transmission line requiring a width for right of way of greater than one hundred feet without first obtaining from the commission a determination of the necessary right- of-way width to co…

A certificate of convenience and necessity shall remain in full force and effect for the period designated by the commission unless such authority is modified or becomes void because the authority has not been exercised within such period. History: 1978 Comp., § 62-9-4, enacted b…

No utility shall abandon all or any portion of its facilities subject to the jurisdiction of the commission, or any service rendered by means of such facilities, without first obtaining the permission and approval of the commission. The commission shall grant such permission and …

Before any certificate may be issued under Sections 62-9-1 through 62-9-6 New Mexico Statutes Annotated, 1978 Compilation, a certified copy of its articles of incorporation or charter, if the applicant be a corporation, shall be on file in the office of the commission. Every appl…

A. The legislature declares that the existing scheme of public utility regulation is adequate to exempt voluntary service agreements, as approved and regulated pursuant to the Public Utility Act [Chapter 62, Articles 1 to 6 and 8 to 13 NMSA 1978], from the antitrust laws. B. In e…

Upon a complaint made and filed by any municipality, or by any person or party affected, that any rate, service regulation, classification, practice or service in effect or proposed to be made effective is in any respect unfair, unreasonable, unjust or inadequate, the commission …

The commission or any commissioner or any party to the proceedings may, in any investigation or hearing before the commission, cause the deposition of witnesses residing within or without the state to be taken in the manner prescribed by law for taking depositions in civil action…

Copies of official documents and orders filed or deposited according to law in the office of the commission, certified by a commissioner or by the secretary under the official seal of the commission to be true copies of the original shall be evidence in like manner as the origina…