El Paso Electric (EPE), an electric utility serving customers in Texas and New Mexico, filed its latest Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (NMPRC) in September 2021. E3 provided end-to-end support for the IRP, which identifies cost-effective demand-and supply-side electricity resources to meet the needs of EPE customers through 2040.
The EPE IRP outlines a plan that aligns with New Mexico’s clean energy targets, meeting the state’s updated Renewable Energy Act (REA) requirements for electricity by supplying 80% of retail sales from renewable energy by 2040 and 100% of retail sales from zero carbon resources by 2045, while serving load reliably and cost-effectively across EPE’s Texas and New Mexico service areas.
E3 supported EPE with end-to-end modeling using E3’s in-house RECAP and RESOLVE models. Using RECAP, E3 calculated the quantity of resources needed to meet EPE’s defined reliability standard, as well as the implied Planning Reserve Margin (PRM). E3 also calculated Effective Load Carrying Capability (ELCC) values specific to the EPE system for counting dispatch-limited resources such as renewables, storage, and demand response toward the PRM. Using RESOLVE, E3’s optimal capacity expansion model, E3 provided EPE with long-term resource modeling that helped the utility evaluate the cost and performance of different combinations of resource options through 2040. EPE used E3’s modeling results directly in its IRP filing.
E3 also provided EPE with analysis examining the costs of different scenarios for reducing or eliminating carbon emissions from its resource mix. On September 1, EPE announced voluntary targets for its entire system of 80% carbon-free energy by 2035 and 100% decarbonized generation by 2045. By initiating these targets company-wide, EPE is applying them both for customers in New Mexico and in Texas, where there are not state requirements for decarbonization. These voluntary targets were directly informed by E3’s analysis of resource portfolios that follow decarbonized trajectories while minimizing costs for EPE’s customers.
The EPE IRP filing can be found on the EPE website. E3’s Joe Hooker, Arne Olson, Jack Moore, Chen Zhang, Huai Jiang, and Yuchi Sun contributed to this project.
